plor-bindery

[plor-bindery]

Bound: the collected short works of @garagepaperback, vol I

The near-year they’ve been doing this hasn’t been much of a significant departure from the years they were married—simply a dare ratcheting up, the push and pull of it a sure grapple that the other is still there, a raw confirmation even if they couldn’t say what had been confirmed. It’s how they’d ended up married in the first place. A shivering stack of one-upping the other, arched brows and teasing smirks until Harry’d bought a ring and Draco bought better ones. Harry booked a little private farmhouse to have a big do six months out and a week later Draco came home from work, pocket heavy with a Portkey for Gara Rock in Salcombe. The dizzy, quick hour had been damp enough to soften the sharp-edge of Draco’s smile into something almost awe-soaked. But this isn’t the same thing—the dares end at a caved-in tunnel, or that’s what they’re aiming for. A complete collapse. It seems truly impossible, after every other impossible thing.

I made a paperback (apt) of a few of garage’s fics, each story a masterpiece in its own right. I forgot to take a picture of the table of contents before sending them off to their new homes, but this collection features: javelin (to have and to hold), coyote ugly, ready, able, the lonesome crowded west, and a lie, two truths, ripe, soft, a lungful of air by the fist, and objection. Garage's tags are an art form in and of themselves, so I also included an index of tags (inspired by @toomuchplor). this bind also features an illustration by @eleadore.

garage has already written more fics since i finished this typeset so .... stay tuned for vol 2. i remain forever in awe.

[plor-bindery]

Bound: Dwelling by aideomai

Drarry, T, 83K

Curses, James and Lily Potter ride again, several Ministry balls, a teenage Summer of Love, a grim young adult dystopian winter, a few different Draco Malfoys, secrets and the problems re: not having any, alternate lives, impossible lives, real lives, allusions to Dirty Dancing, and just because it's not called the Mirror of Erised doesn't mean you shouldn't know better.

More details (and a potential spoiler for Dwelling) below the cut:

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong with this bind. I started it in ... January? And have been working on it very slowly since then. I messed up the typeset and had to cut pages out of the sewn text block. I'm not even going to say how many times I had to recut and reglue the cover boards. The spine HTV is crooked. That being said, it's a bind just for me, and I think the concept is nice, even if the execution was lacking. I love this fic so much.

[plor-bindery]

(Re)bound: Everybody Hates a Tourist by @wolfpants

I whipped up a lil paperback yesterday and today, because it’s always a good day to make myself more copies of Wolf’s lovely words.

If you haven't read this fic, you need to: Wolf has such a way of situating Harry and Draco in the real world, and especially in the queer community. This is a story of self-discovery, evident almost immediately for Harry’s side of things: stuck in a boring job at the Ministry, frozen in an increasingly distant relationship with Ginny, and unable to break away from all the expectations placed on him by the Wixen community. Harry sees Draco's self-assurance, his friends and his community, as an enticing beacon of a life he doesn't feel he can have for himself.

But Draco's parallel journey creeps up on you as the narrative unspools. In time, it becomes clear that Draco's not actually living a carefree and gay seaside life, and that running away from the Wixen world has exacted a price from him.

And, listen: this is wolfpants. So there's also sparkling dialogue, brilliant characterization, adorable sausage dogs, and amazing sex scenes.

The typeset I used here is one I made earlier in my fanbinding journey, with only a handful of tweaks to the layout because I was still learning and there were a couple goofs.

The cover is new, but picks up the texting theme from the hardcover version and lays it over a pebble beach that (I hope) evokes Brighton's seaside vibes.

I feel like I've cracked the code on soft touch lamination, or at least have improved a lot, but I'm still working on the paperback technique in general.

Following tips from the paperback genius @jmbinding, I use my thermal binder to bind the text block into a piece of plain/blank presentation paper (same stuff I print onto for the cover), trim that bound block, and then glue on the laminated cover over the thermal bound plain one. Finally, I trim the cover to fit the trimmed book -- which is the step I'm still not super great at! (Don't look too closely at the edges or you'll spy my mistakes.)

Mandatory flip-through video because the floppy give of a paperback is still incredibly pleasing for me.

[plor-bindery]

Paperback Cover Tip

I figure if I'm struggling with this, someone else is, too.

When scoring your paperback cover to fold the spine, skip the struggle to figure out how to place the fold line on the blank back of the cover. Just score it from the front! Ruler, bone folder (one with a nice fine edge), score twice. Flip over and fold the way you want it to fold.

This is, apparently, how you're meant to score folds: score into the paper on the hill side of the fold, not the valley side! So not only are you saving yourself grief, you're Doing The Thing Correctly.

[plor-bindery]

Bound: Rookie Moves by peu_a_peu

Here's my contribution to the Rookie Moves April Fool's Exchange. I collaborated on it with @amomorii who is an INCREDIBLE artist (and writer!) It was so much fun working with Sam.

The design on the dust jacket was based on this illustration that Sam found. ISN'T IT PERFECT?

Obviously I had to put my favorite line on the back. (Did I mention I got it tattooed? I did.)

I couldn't find the perfect scene break graphics, so I asked Sam to do them, and they are exactly what I wanted. Every chapter has a themed icon.

Did I buy a wide format printer and a roll of soft-touch laminate just so I could make this book exactly as I wanted? Maybe.

The inner book is very simple in design, but I love how it came out. The spine is…I don't even know what, but I put the title on it with the foil quill on my Silhouette. Came out gorgeously. And then the covers are covered in a suede-like paper (some variety of Skivertex). I love how it feels.

Fonts Body: Baskerville Chapters: Lemon/Milk Italic

Do I have enough copies of this fic/series? I don't think that's possible.

(Quick and shameless plug of the podfic I made of the whole series!)

[plor-bindery]

Bound: Rookie Moves and the Twenty-Two Cards series by peu_a_peu, illustrated by @bicholsdrarrysideblog

“I paid my debt to society,” Malfoy said unconvincingly. “I think my being there makes a positive statement.” “Malfoy, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but you must know that most people…who know who you are…dislike you.” Malfoy’s face settled into a scowl. “I don’t expect you to understand the dynastic timescale I’m working at. It’s a one-hundred year chess match for the family reputation. I have to make opening moves.”

Bichol and I collabed on this version of Twenty-Two Cards for a binding exchange. Bichol created amazing illustrations for the dust jacket and incredible individual chapter headers. What Bichol came up with surpassed what my imagination was capable of even hoping for. Look at Harry and Draco’s faces! Look at the flying glasses! Look at the gay hypnosis headline!

More details below the cut.

The inspiration for the design was “groovy 70s buddy cop films” and also “remakes of 70s buddy cop films.”

Thank you Bichol for being the dreamiest partner to work with on this, thank you peu for creating one (well actually eight) of my favorite fics of all time. I was so inspired by both of you for this bind! And thank you @phoenixortheflame for coaching me through my first dust jacket. I’m gonna conquer that laminator someday.

[plor-bindery]

Bound: Advanced Transfiguration (& Other Forms of Romance) by @toomuchplor and Gemini in Retrograde by me (two for one!)

Plor and I made tête-bêche bindings for each other and it was one of the coolest fandom things I've ever done. You can see Plor's incredible bind here. More details below the cut!

I am in a state of constant awe of Plor's writing and binding skills. We made typesets for one another and then created our own bound version that included both of our father/son/coming-of-age fics. Plor taught me a lot in this process -- including but not limited to what a tête-bêche is. The case I made was inspired by images of other similar books I found online, and my god was that vinyl a bitch to weed.

Plor's typeset of my fic was the perfect marriage of the story's Freaky Friday themes and something that felt uniquely in-universe to a HP fic. I still can't get over it. The dual color scheme representing Draco and Scorpius was so clever and consistent throughout the typeset, from the title page to the chapter headers to the section dividers!

Advanced Transfiguration is one of my favorite fics I've ever read about a character who is, essentially, an OC: James Sirius Potter. And my god, is this my James S. Potter forever now. My typeset is chess-themed, the game James spends a lot of the fic learning and playing. The section dividers are cute little pawns, and each "chapter heading" (with which I took artistic license, because this fic does not have chapters, forgive me Plor) is slightly different to represent James' character arc throughout the fic. (Did I take pictures of each chapter header? No! I never remember to photograph my binds thoroughly).

I loved doing this with you, Plor, thank you for sharing your mind and your fic and your talent with me!

[plor-bindery]

Bound: 22 Cards: A peu_a_peu collection ft. Rookie Moves and 6 other delightful tales.

Typeset and bound by: me, @phoenixortheflame.

Art by: @the-forbidden-forest

One day, not so long ago, I made a vow to myself: "I'll never bind four copies again."

But then, a couple months ago, I cornered myself into co-hosting a small binder-artist collab exchange (shout out to my co-host, the talented @maleekamolscreates).

Which means I was already on the hook for two copies (one for my amazing artist partner @the-forbidden-forest and one for my recipient).

And of course I had to make a copy for peu. So that's three.

And then I saw the art Amelia was making and, well, you can see why I needed a copy for myself.

Did I regret it? Instantly.

Was it worth it? Absolutely.

I mean... just look at it. Look at the illustrations. Amelia did all of them. Every single bloody one. And this is only the dust jacket. Just wait til you see the typeset.

But first...

Because we went for a monochrome dust jacket and typeset, I really wanted to make the rest of the bind pop — and I think I achieved that.

The cover material is Verona bookcloth with Cricut brand metallic iron-on foil in light gold.

And because I like to make things hard for myself, I did four different back cover designs, each one representing a tarot card.

But wait! There's more!

Hand-sewn chaos endbands, gold-painted edges using acrylic ink, and the most beautiful chiyogami endpapers.

Of course, I insisted on including a few signature details "my followers expect to see from me." (Yes, I really said that to Amelia, and cringed as I did. But also: Its true!!!! Luckily, she humoured me. And anyway, I think it turned out awesome, so, yeah.)

Also, I should say, peu does not write for Hacks. But it's my headcanon. She absolutely could.

Okay now onto the typeset, featuring the most beautiful and perfect art I could possibly imagine for this bind. (Amelia, if you're reading this, you're a real one and I am so happy we had an opportunity to collab on this and ILY ILY ILY.)

I have literally been staring at that one of Harry (probably) getting a blowjob for weeks. God, I'm so happy for him.

And a few more details from the typeset, including a nod to the original Gay Hypnosis design in my Rookie Moves bind (which also happened to be my first bind ever).

This project was such a big undertaking, but I couldn't have asked for a better, more lovely, more talented artist partner. And the material is literally my lifeblood, so...

Thank you, peu. Thank you, Amelia. Thank you everyone who participated in this exchange. Thank you to everyone who cheered me on.

Love,

phoenix President of the peu_a_peu Fanclub

[plor-bindery]

Bound: A Soft Place to Fall by @amomorii

This fic completely captured my heart, and when Sam (the author and artist) and I worked on a different project together, I knew I wanted to bind this for him (since I was sending a copy of our other project anyway.) (PS How unfair is it when someone can create gorgeous art AND write beautiful fic? So unfair.)

Sam designed the cover, I can't take credit for it, but it was my first printed canvas cover, which I love. Well, the canvas I used wasn't technically designed for printing on, so I had to put a lot of layers of fixative spray on it, so it came out a little…rough…but I don't think it's too terrible. Looks cool, at least!

And I used glittery black endpapers because they remind me of one of the main characters. Read the fic, you'll see.

[plor-bindery]

(Re)Bound: Polar Night/Midnight Sun by me (@toomuchplor)

It’s been nearly a year since I started bookbinding, so I decided it was time to revisit the first fic I ever set.

I'll do a post with side-by-side photos another time but suffice it to say, it's not so clear to me that it's like 'first book bad, this book good'.

And if you're like, wow, Plor is posting a lot of binds this week -- you are correct. I'm on vacation this week, but also I'm wrapping up a few things that were WIPs for weeks. Lots of victory laps, but this is the last one!

I did my first typeset in Word before quickly switching to InDesign (which I have for work reasons anyway) so I wound up designing from scratch. (By the way, I’m very happy to share typesets if anyone is ever interested — for personal use only, of course!)

I used Canva to create the cover page and chapter headers in this cute watercolour style. And the end papers are pretty chiyogami from a paper store in Toronto.

I rounded the spine, but it didn’t need backing as the swell wasn’t much. I am still figuring out rounding for sure — the hardest part is getting the text block and spine stable enough to trim the head and tail straight afterwards, at least for me!

Sewn faux double core silk endbands on a 2 mm leather cord core.

I dithered about the case cover art for weeks while I did a million other projects. I knew I wanted to try something new but couldn’t find the right approach or technique to inspire me. Then I randomly tried a paper onlay for a blank book I was making and had my eureka moment.

The cover design is drawn by me in Illustrator, then cut from chiyogami by my cricut. I used a PVA/corn starch paste 50-50 mix to glue on the paper directly to the cover before the gold HTV outline was applied. The gold is partly decorative and partly to protect the edge of the onlay from friction/wear.

I am obsessed with how this looks. It’s quilting and paper art and mosaic all together? I can see myself doing this style more for sure.

One challenge is that once it’s glued up, you have exactly one chance to place the paper onlay on the cover — you can’t pick it up and try again because even with mix, the glue marks the fabric. So you need steady hands and good planning. I’m wondering about transfer tape or maybe even post it flags to help guide me in future projects? I'm pleased with the result but it could be better.

After all that sweating and work, I was paranoid about wear and tear on the paper, so I made a dust jacket. (Shout out to @citrusses for advice and emotional support during lamination time, and to lately for chatting with me and advising me as I did the paper onlay design and work!)

[plor-bindery]

Hand bound fanfic!

Fic: 🚬 Rookie Moves🚬 By Peu_A_Peu

Cover and typeset art by the most amazing @faiell

My friend @phoenixortheflame and I cohosted a small artist/binder collab. Each binder collaborated with an artist and committed to creating 2 binds: one for the artist and one for another binder! I also made a cheeky little paperback that I sent to Peu herself!

I typeset this in affinity, designing the chapter headers and title page in Canva. Fai did two large pieces of art, one I was able to use for the title page. Fai also drew 10 little faces that I used for each chapter headers.

Cover is a three piece bradel using duo book cloth. It’s an amazing color shifting cloth. This is mudbath and brick. I keep meaning to record the process of a three piece bradel case, and never do. Next time! I wanted to keep the cover fairly simple, because I knew I’d be making a dust jacket using an additional art piece created by Fai. I wanted SOMETHING for the cover, so asked Fai to make some simple line art that I could cut with my cricut.

End pages are from Hollanders and my friends felt the vibe looked like smoke.

Edges decorated with acrylic ink and faux double core end bands created with my beloved soie perlee.

I had so much fun making this bind and even more fun reading this fic. It’s free to read on AO3!!! This fic is amazing and delightful and silly and you must read it.

Remember kids, keep fanfic free and be kind always.

[plor-bindery]

(Re)Bound: Polar Night/Midnight Sun by me (@toomuchplor)

It’s been nearly a year since I started bookbinding, so I decided it was time to revisit the first fic I ever set.

I'll do a post with side-by-side photos another time but suffice it to say, it's not so clear to me that it's like 'first book bad, this book good'.

And if you're like, wow, Plor is posting a lot of binds this week -- you are correct. I'm on vacation this week, but also I'm wrapping up a few things that were WIPs for weeks. Lots of victory laps, but this is the last one!

I did my first typeset in Word before quickly switching to InDesign (which I have for work reasons anyway) so I wound up designing from scratch. (By the way, I’m very happy to share typesets if anyone is ever interested — for personal use only, of course!)

I used Canva to create the cover page and chapter headers in this cute watercolour style. And the end papers are pretty chiyogami from a paper store in Toronto.

I rounded the spine, but it didn’t need backing as the swell wasn’t much. I am still figuring out rounding for sure — the hardest part is getting the text block and spine stable enough to trim the head and tail straight afterwards, at least for me!

Sewn faux double core silk endbands on a 2 mm leather cord core.

I dithered about the case cover art for weeks while I did a million other projects. I knew I wanted to try something new but couldn’t find the right approach or technique to inspire me. Then I randomly tried a paper onlay for a blank book I was making and had my eureka moment.

The cover design is drawn by me in Illustrator, then cut from chiyogami by my cricut. I used a PVA/corn starch paste 50-50 mix to glue on the paper directly to the cover before the gold HTV outline was applied. The gold is partly decorative and partly to protect the edge of the onlay from friction/wear.

I am obsessed with how this looks. It’s quilting and paper art and mosaic all together? I can see myself doing this style more for sure.

One challenge is that once it’s glued up, you have exactly one chance to place the paper onlay on the cover — you can’t pick it up and try again because even with mix, the glue marks the fabric. So you need steady hands and good planning. I’m wondering about transfer tape or maybe even post it flags to help guide me in future projects? I'm pleased with the result but it could be better.

After all that sweating and work, I was paranoid about wear and tear on the paper, so I made a dust jacket. (Shout out to @citrusses for advice and emotional support during lamination time, and to lately for chatting with me and advising me as I did the paper onlay design and work!)

[plor-bindery]

Bound: Advanced Transfiguration (& Other Forms of Romance) by me / Gemini In Retrograde by @citrusses

A tete-beche!

Cit and I have been chatting about doing a collab for ages and we did it at last! This is a little tete-beche marrying her fic about fathers and teenage sons and my fic about fathers and teenage sons. As I shout-messaged her: our fics are hanging out together!!! Ahhh!!!

Citrusses typeset my fic and I typeset hers, then we swapped and went our separate ways to bind and case them in, before finally sending each other a copy in the mail.

Well, the swap is complete and it was DELIGHTFUL to work with Cit on this little project. I have multi-part gushing so I'm just going to go ahead and give you a cut.

Starting with Citrusses' half of the tete-beche: this is the first time I've ever seen anyone typesetting my fic! I was so excited to get her email with the PDF. And then! It was so gorgeous! I loved the clean chess theme, the beautiful breaks and artwork, the font choice for the titles, everything. It was amazing to see it all come together like that. I am so fond of my little James-POV fic and it was a treat to get this small love letter to the fic from a binder and author I admire so much.

A couple photos of Cit's lovely typeset:

For my half, I had the pleasure of setting Cit's fic, which is a Freaky Friday trope where Draco and Scorpius have swapped bodies. Citrusses manages the tightrope walk that is a father-son body swap (and a Drarry story!) with such skill and care. I adore the imperfect but trying-hard relationship between Draco and Scorpius, and of course I adore Prof. Potter. It's a brilliant fic and it was so fun to set it and bind it.

I ran with the Freaky Friday thing -- at first, I thought about the Jodie Foster original, but when my 70s artwork failed to inspire, I switched to the 00s version with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. This worked better for my brain! I had so much fun creating the title page and chapter headers in the 00s style, using green and blue to signify Draco and Scorpius's respective houses in the fic.

For the final bind itself, I did two versions, mostly because I trimmed the first copy badly and then bled on it (ha) so I had to try again. The first version uses black and white and gold HTV, but for the second I swapped the black for a dark blue because it vibed better with the endpapers I'd chosen. I did a striped endband for my (bloody) copy and an ombre one for Cit's copy.

The style of the cover design owes something to PrettyBinding's style on IG -- I love the thin gold outline and I am going to feature it again soon, though used a bit differently! The constellation behind the Scorpius and Draco figures is, in fact, Gemini. Not that you can tell??? But I know it in my heart!

(You can play a fun game of "spot the differences" between these two copies.)

All in all, an absolute delight of a bind and a swap! I was so tickled to work alongside Citrusses. And I will save my gushing about the amazing binds I received for a later post!

[plor-bindery]

Next fannish bind will be my fortieth fannish bind. Taking suggestions! What would you like to see bound?

[plor-bindery]

End band porn again.

Personalization blocked to protect the innocent.

I’m trying something new here which will shortly show up in a fannish bind. This is a dot journal for a pal.

After I cut the end papers I was like oh no did I cut it long grain but having got the paste down pasted, I can declare this paper doesn’t have a grain. (Happens with handmade papers!)

Knowing that, I wish I’d had the waves and boats and mountains going up and down lol. Oh well.

[plor-bindery]

Just a little blank dot journal I made for a friend.

Friend requested an ADHD themed design for the cover and I came through by using my own ADHD powers to forget to account for the elastic closure. Luckily, friend found this hilarious so I didn’t have to start over.

I have been trying out the Affordable Bookbinding Equipment book plough for trimming and hoo boy. When it works (ie when I set it up well) it is SO MUCH BETTER than my shitty crooked guillotine.

[plor-bindery]

I think the most frustrating thing about the chevron endband is that you basically uave to sew the thing twice. and then you don't see half the work.

you are never going to see this again except for a stupid tiny slip of yellow. & it took me just as long as a regular endband. now I have to sew another on top of it.