Twin binding of The Seventeenth Step

Fanwork
Title:	Twin binding of The Seventeenth Step
Creator:	Elarra
Date(s):	07 October 2011
Medium:	fancraft, fannish bookbinding
Fandom:	Sherlock Holmes
External Links:	Twin binding of The Seventeenth Step (LiveJournal) Making of the "The Seventeeth Step" twin binding (LiveJournal)
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Twin binding of The Seventeenth Step is a bound book version of Katie Forsythe's Sherlock Holmes fanfic series The Seventeenth Step. It was created by Elarra. The book is about 20 cm high, printed on A4-sized paper. The edges are painted with gold for the first part and silver for the second.

If you haven't read it already, you've missed something. Book canon, wonderful use of language and lovely characterisation. [...] The thing is, since the text was so like the books, I felt that it needed to actually be a book. It would fit so well between covers of leather and marbled paper. My fingers itched for a chance to bind it. So I mustered all the courage I had (I'm kinda shy, and absolutely terrified of talking in English to people on internet, especially people I admire) and asked Katie Forsythe for permission to print her works and bind it into a one-of-a-kind book.

The format is called dos-á-dos, meaning back-to-back in French. I call it tvillingband in Swedish, twin binding. I wanted to make a box to protect the book, and ended up with a box that I’m tempted to make another box to protect… I made the cover papers especially for this project. Since the seventeenth step in the title refers to the 221b Baker Street staircase, I printed the title… well, like a staircase. Since it’s Sherlock Holmes, I just had to make a secret compartment in the spine of the box. There should be a cocaine syringe in there, but there are limits to what I do for my art…

Gallery

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  "This is not the book. This is a box to protect the book. I'm so fond of it that i'm actually considering making a box to protect the box."

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  "Since it's Sherlock Holmes, I just had to make a secret compartment in the spine of the box. There should be a cocaine syringe in there, but there are limits to what I do for my art..."

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  "Materials for the box: Cardboard, paste marbled paper, leather."

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  "I marbled the paper myself, this one is inpired by the London fog of the 1880's."

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  "And here's the book! When I printed it out, it was massive. Someone in my class suggested that instead of making it into one single volume, I should make a twin binding of it. The idea suited the text wonderfully well, since the fics are about Holmes and Watson, and a bit about two halves fitting perfectly together."

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  "So this is a twin binding. It looks like two books stacked on top of each other, but as you can see..."

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  "...it's really one volume."

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  "I had to include one of the original illustrations as well."

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  "Since the seventeenth step in the title refers to the 221b Baker Street staircase, I printed the title... well, like a staircase."

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  "Soon I will post another entry about making the book, and how everything is thought through to fit with the text." (see "making of")

Making Of

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  "After I copied the whole body of text into Word and printed it on nice paper, I stitched the book with flax thread. When I thought about if I should wax the thread or not, then I remembered Sussex and the bees, so beeswax it was =)"

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  "After stitching it, I glued the spine and... wah, I really don't know what it's called in English, but well, I shape the spine."

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  "Then French headbands. I used silk thread, grey and blue for Holmes and Watson. There is a third thread that is just for tying the knots around, that you never see, and i made that red for hidden love, because I'm silly like that."

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  "After gluing on the cover boards I measured the leather for spine and corners."

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  "This lovely machine is a Shärf-fix, you use it to thin out the edges of the leather."

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  "Putting on the false raised binds (direct translation from swedish, haha), and then pasting on the leather."

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  "Then time for the paper. This, too, is silver and blue for Holmes and Watson, I made it especially for this book. (The paper on the box, which I forgot to take a good picture of befor cutting it up, is made especially for this book to, with the London fog of the 1880's as inspiration)"

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  "Making the box =)"

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  "And then, at last, this is the title printing machine <3"

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