Black Oak Bindery

Thanks 🙂

Haha, yeah that was awful timing. There is a little creak but nothing like that 😂

Thank you! 😁

I try to stuff as much meaning into each part as I can, even the endbands if I think they can represent something from the book.
I try to always keep my mind open to doing last minute adjustments to the design. Those are always the most delightful (and stressful).

Showing off the parts of the Red Rising design! Designing a book requires taking all parts into account and how they play together. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes it takes days to figure it all out.

I have some spots for getting a commission of this binding.

📚🪐💙
#scifi #bookbinding

Thank you! I'd recommend gentle hands but yeah, people can touch it 😁

Thank you 🙂

Bound in goat leather with laced on boards. The design has onlays that are a mix of hand dyed goat and calf leather.
The page edges were created by lightly layering gold acrylic paint followed by splashes of red.
I painted endpages to look like a star field but also echo the design on the cover.

A book standing upright with both covers open to the viewer.

A book standing upright with the foreedge facing the viwer. Both covers are open to show the endpages.

A book standing upright in a three-quarter view with the foreedge to the viewer. There is a red and gold design on the page edges.

The bottom corner of a book showing some foil decoration.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Published by Del Ray, 2014.

I'm really excited to finally share photos of this bind. I've been working on binding the first 3 books of the series since this past August and now the eponymous Red Rising is complete!

🪐📚💙
🧶
#books #bookbinding #bookcollecting

A flyer for the book fair "Codex" paired with images of a white leather book standing upright.

Heading to Codex this year but only on the last day. However, the book I bound for last year's Open Set competition will be at the American Academy of Bookbinding table the whole fair.
I know I won't get through half of what's there in a day but I'm really looking forward to trying!

#bookbinding

Bookbinding, 17th century, Leather; tooled, gilded, and painted

Bookbinding, 17th century, Leather; tooled, gilded, and painted

Bookbinding
17th century

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/452677

The book "Red Rising" by Pierce Brown being held up to show the spine. The book has a large red onlay wrapping around the spine and is bound in black leather.

Sneaky peaky. The binding of Red Rising is done. Golden Son and Morning are right on its heels. Full glamour shots coming later in the week.

🪐📚💙

#redrising #piercebrown #finebinding #bookbinding

The top edge of a book showing the gold and red edge decoration and the black endband.

I really, really love it when decorative elements from the page edges and the endbands meet. It can be a subtle thing but it's just lovely when you notice it. I went simple on the endbands for this book because there is a LOT going on everywhere else!

#paintededges #bookcollecting #bookbinding

Three brown, wooden bookshelves up against a wall. There are books in stacks on the shelves and on the ground.

Getting a new bookshelf means it's time to reorganize!
From left to right I'm going with non-fiction to TBR, sci-fi to general fiction, fantasy.

📚💙
📚⏰

Thank you!

A stack of books sitting on a table with decorated edges. They are all painted with red and gold paint

A collection of edges! From top to bottom: Morning Star, Golden Son, Red Rising by Pierce Brown.
All were done with thin layers of acrylic paint and some very messy splattering!

#scifi #bookbinding #custombooks #finebinding

The binding of the Red Rising trilogy is progressing! The design features a large onlay that's been hand dyed and pared to 0.3 mm. I attached it with paste and now it's in the press so the onlay can sink into the covering leather and be backpared later.

🪐📚💙
🧶
#scifi #bookbinding

Awesome work!

My favorite binding I completed was Alien Clay (and also one of my top reads) because of the challenge in representing the strangeness of the planet the story takes place on. Foundation was a close second because it's the most tooling-heavy design I've done and that was a lesson in patience.

2025 recap! Happy New Year!
It's been a hell of a year. I attended my first Worldcon, completed several commissions, sold some personal work, and made progress towards my diploma in fine binding.

🧶
🪐📚
📷📚💙

A small dog sitting in a shopping cart.

A white dog paw.

Picked up a new family member this weekend 🥰 This is Aurora. She's a corgi/German shepherd mix.

I was worried about how the onlay would fare over the spine but it only needed a couple touchups after covering.

The endpages are hand painted by me and represent the ending of one of the short stories that speaks to the bridges that communication can build.

I met Karen at Worldcon this year and she decided to have a special copy of her book created. I love working with authors to make their work into a binding.

I created the onlay by paring the leather down to 0.3 mm. I painted it then applied it to the book leather, pressed it, then back pared it.

A copy of Patti 209 by K. G. Anderson standing upright with both covers open. It's covered in black leather and has two strands of DNA crossing from the back cover to the front.

A book standing upright with both covers open and the foreedge facing the viewer. The endpages are purple and feather a painted depiction of a soundwave.

A close up view of the endpage of a book. It's purple and has a painted depiction of a soundwave.

A box laying open to show the black leather book inside.

Patti 209 by K.G. Anderson.
This book is a collection of short stories revolving around what happens if our current political situation in the US doesn't change. The stories are poignant, funny, and present situations that are horrifying to consider.

Edge decoration for Red Rising! Blood splatters for the violence and rage of the story and a line for Darrow cutting his path through it all.

🧶
📚🪐💙

#redrising #scifibooks #piercebrown #sprayededges

A leather covered plaquette showing the design for a book. It has black leather with a red leather circle in the center and black lines running straight down.

Continuing on with the mockups for the binding of the Red Rising trilogy, here's the design for Golden Son.
Loyalty and betrayal is the main theme I'm working with, shown by the black lines running down the covers.

🪐📚💙
#bookbinding

A hand bound copy of the book Patti 209 by K. G. Anderson being held upright. It is covered in black leather and has DNA strands going across the cover

A close up of a hand bound copy of the book Patti 209 by K. G. Anderson showing the process of adding the book title. It is covered in black leather and has DNA strands going across the cover.

A close up of a hand bound copy of the book Patti 209 by K. G. Anderson showing the process of adding the book title. It is covered in black leather and has DNA strands going across the cover.

A copy of a hand bound copy of the book Patti 209 by K. G. Anderson showing the process of adding the book title. It is covered in black leather and has DNA strands going across the cover.

Working on some titling today!

1. Almost final - there's a bit of clean up to do
2. Final pass of blind tooling
3. First pass of tooling
4. The setup of how I transfer the title

#bookbinder #handcraft #books #selfpublishedauthor #finebinding #foilquill #goldfoil

Work has begun on the Red Rising rebinds! I'll be creating 10 copies of these bindings. If you're interested in getting one when they're available, fill out the form in my bio so you can be notified.

#redrising #piercebrown #scifiandfantasy #rebinding #bookbinder

Thank you! 😊

A leather covered plaquette standing against a wall. There is a red circle in the center and the title "red rising" written vertically down the center.

I'm working with different textures in the designs for the Red Rising bindings so I decided to make physical mockups to see how everything works together.
The title was added digitally.

#booksky #bookbinding #scifi