#binderary 2025

[celestial-sphere-press]

Fanbinding: Atlas, by @distractedkat

(pls click photos for better quality)

Between what was and what will be stands James Tiberius Kirk, in all his fractured patchwork glory. Because saving the Federation was only the beginning.

This fic has been on my to-do list for a long time, and serendipitously got pushed up for me to do RIGHT NOW because I needed a fic I could use to demonstrate layering boards for cutouts for a class @pleasantboatpress and I taught for Binderary. @finalfrontierpublishing had a great typeset, so I rushed to get the text ready enough for the class demo that I could start the cover... and then things got out of hand. Whoops.

I started with a basic circle cutout for the globe, which then grew a secondary layer for me to sandwich copper wires into. Atlas got printed onto marbled paper and added in on top. Then I developed a plan to have the moon-earth orbits, etc on the cover...

...and I needed a sun & I had this awesome paper I decided to use for endpapers, so we get a stupid complicated paper inset too...

...and I had been meaning to try out French double core endbands so why not do those in the colors of the earth from space...

Annnnnd then I was going to a box-making class & this is the kind of delicate that kinda needs one. so. here we are!

bonus: that art peep in the background is a super awesome metal print by @natureintheory

bonus bonus: cutting out the sun, and the cardstock layer goes under the bookcloth to create the indents that the pieces of the sun fit into like a puzzle

materials notes: colibri uran bookcloth, extremely delicate handmade Japanese paper for endpapers (did an adapted form of made endpapers) that i think? is from Itoya?, marbled jute paper for Atlas + globe, copper wire, copper acrylic ink for the edge, silver + rose gold foil applied with handheld foil quill pen, japanese hand-sewing silk for endbands.

[heliotropepajamas-books]

Fanbinding: National Service Series by burntcopper

National Service (Series) by burntcopper

Date Completed: 2/4/2025

Size: Half Letter Folio.  63,541 words, 227 pages.  7 works

Copies: 1

Binderary 2025: Book 1

The first book of binderary was a copy of the National Service series.  These stories ask the question “What would it be like for the Pevensies to return to England after being kings and queens of Narnia?”  There’s also a crossover with Torchwood, since Susan works for the Cardiff branch.  Peter and Edmund have the army but Susan was quite bored in her prior office job, and somehow drags Lucy along as medic.  Also, outsider POVs are some of my favorite types of scenes and this series has so many great ones.

I can’t say much about the inside of the book, as I used a typeset from Woodland Warbler Press.  I was quite taken with the lamppost they included on the title page, so I reused the motif on the cover.  Everything was gray and silver (which doesn't photograph well), in keeping with the shadow theme from Susan’s story.  I especially like the decorative papers I used inside, part of a double-sided scrapbook paper pad I found at the local creative reuse store.  They were the perfect color scheme but had a really strange coating on them, to the point that I had to lightly sand the back in order to give the glue something to grip to when I was casing in the book.

[three--rings]

The other book I made back in February was an author copy of Aral Vorkosigan's Dog by @philomytha.

I was going to remake the exact style I did for my copy, but then I ugh, fucked up the HTV titles. So I had to trash that cover and start over. I used some Japanese bookcloth from Hollander's from my stash and silver HTV.

So I can also share the photo of my entire Binderary output for this year. It was a slow year for reasons.

[chubsthehamster]

after five years of bookbinding I finally acquired!! a proper finishing press!! AHHH

she's so beautiful!! and the tension control is CRAZY...super pumped to put a real chonker in here heh.

I also got backing irons that fit in the press!! I was able to round on my old press, but not back. very excited (and a bit apprehensive) to see how this goes (the last time I tried to back a textblock it went...quite poorly lolol 🙂‍↕️)

bonus photo of my old (and still very functional) press my dad made me when I first started 🥺 she's perfect and I'm never gonna stop using her but now I can cook two books at a time yeehaw 🤠

[heliotropepajamas-books]

Fanbinding: Midshipman's Malady by Swiftsure

Bind #14

Midshipman’s Malady by Swiftsure (@swiftly-surely)

Date Completed: 02/07/2025

Size: Quarto.  19,837 words, 151 pages.

Copies: 1

5th book of Binderary

This is a Horatio Hornblower story with a really interesting magic system and some unconventional world building.  Since it was an Age of Sail setting it was the perfect excuse to use some fun materials.  I used mystery paper from the local creative reuse store for the textblock and untrimmed edges for a rustic look.  The cover is a bit of printed marble paper I’ve been hoarding for "something good" for 10+ years.  I’m not sure why I thought the gold HTV would have enough contrast with the brown bookcloth for the spine title, but it is readable from certain angles.

Garamond for the body since it’s a historic font, and IM Fell for the titles since it looks aged, plus a cursive font I can't recall.  The margins are a bit wide since I originally planned to trim the edges, but they give it rather luxurious proportions (plenty of room for marginalia and rebinding if it was a period book).  I couldn’t decide between two mock-ups for the title page, so included both - a super simple one for the regular title and over-the-top following the introduction.

[heliotropepajamas-books]

Fanbinding: The Naked British Baker Trio by Kingbooooo

Bind #16

The Naked British Baker by kingbooooo

Date Completed: 2/15/2025 (binderary copy), 3/2/2025 (author copy)

Size: Quarto.  21,609 words, 211 pages (3 stories)

Copies: 2

7th Book of Binderary

I love a good modern Terror AU, especially ones with an office setting (it’s a workplace comedy, right?).  This one has Francis learning to bake items for his office to compete with the amazing baked goods brought in by sales-rep James, and getting increasingly frustrated by the long-winded stories included in the baking blog he’s following.  Also featuring Cornelius the cantankerous cat, Blanky the enthusiastic wingman, and a reference to FitzJames dubious poetical efforts.

This wasn’t originally on my binding list for February but we had a surprise snow day midway through the month - I ran out of things to work on from home and started some late afternoon typesetting.  Tried incorporating images (inspired by one of the Binderary presentations) and also switched up the running headers for each of the three individual stories.  That was a first for me and a bit of a puzzler in LibreOffice Writer (still not sure I did it “correctly” but it worked, more or less).  11pt Liberation Serif for the body font, with Poor Richard for the titles.

I should know by now that siser metallic HTV isn’t the best combination with Hollander’s Allure book cloth, but I gave it a second shot anyway.  It reacted about as well as last time.

I finished the author copy just after Binderary ended and was able to fix a lot of the mistakes I made the first time around, both in the typeset and materials selection (Michael’s MakeMarket HTV and mystery Amazon bookcloth).  The cover design for both was cobbled together from corner spot illustrations in one of my many Dover Pictorial Archive books.  I couldn’t find anything coconut related, so generic round fruit had to do stand-in duty.

[heliotropepajamas-books]

Fanbinding: The Boy Who Spoke With Ghosts by AvacadoLove

Bind #13

The Boy Who Spoke With Ghosts by AvacadoLove

Date Completed: 02/07/2025

Size: Quarto.  21,794 words, 191 pages.

Copies: 1

4th book of Binderary 2025

Inception is one of the fandoms I was reading in as things started transitioning from LiveJournal to AO3 and this is one of the fics that really stuck in my mind from that time period.  It’s an unexpected crossover with The Sixth Sense, with Arthur as Cole Sear and how freaky the projections would be in the dreams of someone who sees the dead in reality.

I do like the quarto size - it’s a really economical use of paper and great for fics in the 15-30,000 word range.  First time printing on regular 20lb printer paper for bookbinding - it drapes really well at this size and there was less show-through than I was expecting.  Bookman Old Style for the body font for no good reason other than I need to try as many as possible before I can make one my personal default.  The titles are Rage Italics to try to be a bit like the cursive version of the handwriting on the Sixth Sense poster.  The HTV title went on really well, but I made a typo that I’m just going to have to live with. And the black bookcloth shows every single speck of dust and cat hair in a three county radius. Looks pretty snazzy though! 

[heliotropepajamas-books]

Fanbinding: In the Punch Line by zamwessell

#21

In the Punch Line by zamwessell

Date Completed: 3/16/2025

Size: Quarto.  29,533 words, 208 pages

Copies: 1

I wanted to make a bright and cheery book with spring on the way, which meant I needed a lighthearted story.  In the Punchline is a modern, non-powered X-Men First Class AU where Charles Xavier gets set up with underwear model Erik Lensherr as his fake date for an upcoming high school reunion.  Hilarity ensues.

I chose the papers and spine cloth for this book before I’d even picked out the fic, but once those were in place I needed a title font that didn’t take itself too seriously.  I leaned into the quirkiness of Cityweeks by adding dots (bullet points in a larger font size) in as many places as possible.  I’m easily entertained.

This was my first time making a three piece bradel binding in about a decade, mostly figuring it out from vague memories and an old book binding project at the back of my shelves.  It’s probably not going to be my go-to style but it is a great way to showcase a pretty paper.  Horizontal stripes make a great party trick for this technique as it’s much easier to pattern match across the fore edge of the boards.

(Apologies for all the spam, I was having a lot of fun taking pictures)