Who wants to make a peller box?

Guess what! I finally gathered my pages of scribbled notes, my camera of haphazard in-progress pictures, and finally compiled a set of instructions for making one of these bad boys!

And not only that, but I've got two versions of this baby. I like mixing and matching my unit families because sometimes 1/32 inch sparks joy and sometimes 14 mm is just so convenient, but especially since all of my chipboard comes in english thicknesses, here's a version of the process for my fellow imperial units weirdos:

And here's one for the sensible folks of the world, raised on a base-ten system rather than dividing everything in half and then in half and then in half-- I won't subject you to inches, when there's a workaround, but I was tempted! Have your localized version of the story and have fun with it:

Mad credit of course goes to Hugo Peller, who developed these things in the first place, but also to Jack Fetterer, who preserved a set of notes from a 1990 class, which, as far as I can tell, are the most complete set of instructions available online. But I'm an engineer, I couldn't be satisfied there, I had bludgeon it into a system of equations, sorted by usage and material. And I also go into some of the hiccups I ran into trying to follow those class instructions, like being a green amateur at leatherwork, or not having the equipment to saw plywood boards in my apartment. These instructions still do make some unfair assumptions about the base knowledge level of anyone who wants to give this a try, like using bookcloth rather than plain cloth, but I may try to loop back and adjust that soon.

I can't claim any kind of expertise in this type of work, but I beat my head against an interesting problem, and it's time to share what I got out of it! And, secret goal, I want to help more people make more cool things, and maybe improve on my process in ways I can absorb and chew on in the future. Save my work, change it, I dare anyone who sees this to improve it!! I want it to be better. Credit would be cool, and of course the actual experts I leveraged for this deserve all the credit in the world, but that's not my priority. I want the world to have more exciting things in it, and I want more people to have exciting skills. Go forth and go nuts!!

I think i have... mostly turned a corner. Halfway through last night i went from sleeping two hours at a time propped up in a sitting position to five hours flat on my back! Physical exertion still makes me wheeze hilariously, but sitting quietly and doing nothing does not! My abs are SO SORE from coughing, but the amount of actual coughing has eased off, even if it still sounds disgusting! I am still weak and wobbly like a baby deer, but i managed to do some unpacking today! The majority of my remaining boxes are quarantined to my kitchen, which is nearly impassable, but shhhh, it's progress!

I was called out in an earlier sickpost for having border collie brain, which is a hilariously apt dunk on my personality, so I am in a tug-of-war with myself to fake the feeling of productivity by constant restless posting on here, versus doing some kind of quiet media consumption I've been meaning to catch up on anyways (solution: i deadlock myself and do neither and [border collie vibration intensifies]), but GOD, this is agonizing, i yearn for even the productivity of my office job 😂

Good: sick day

Bad: sick day. I will be not at all prepared for my important meeting tomorrow morning, and I'm not DOING anything or having fun, I'm lying in bed wheezing pathetically and failing to nap, and the hours are moving sooooo slowwwwwww

I am HOWLING, i finished the hard labor part of moving and immediately fell viciously sick? I don't even get to languish in a home that feels like a home yet?? It is only by sheer luck that i have laid hands on a box of anti congestion medicine. I don't even get to try to think about all the money i just saved by doing this stupid thing manually because all i can think about is my dripping nose and the sheer pressure of this sinus headache. I can't even practice any creative or consumptive self-care because this is just so ughhh right now

NEVER AGAIN. I WILL FORCIBLY ABDUCT A SPOUSE TO MARRY OR ROB A BANK BEFORE I MOVE MYSELF SOLO* AGAIN

Can I lay hands on a full set of clothes for the morning without some frantic rummaging? Don't worry about it! Tomorrow is for finishing the last apartment dregs and initiating moveout cleaning frenzy. For now, I collapse

Two more books squeaked in under the deadline before I had to do nonsense like ""unplug my printer"" and """"stop doing crafts for two seconds oh my god"""" for my move! I did a guestbook earlier this year where the couple wrote the story of their relationship as a fairy tale at the beginning of the book, before leaving space for guests to sign. And now, I did two miniature versions with just the stories, as gifts for the parental units!

The materials and design choices are still the same, and much lime how with interregnum I was flirting with the upper limits of how thick I want to go with k118, here I was flirting with the lower limits, haha. It was a great learning experience! The contents and titling are resized a bit to fit the smaller size of the new books, but I had JUST enough of this hide to match the leather exactly, so the three volumes should make a really cute matched set going forward!

Me yesterday: other than a few stragglers, i thinkkkk that should just about do it for my fiction books! Good to cross that off the list!

Ten minutes later:

This morning:

Agghghhhdhhhh i hate that stage when a home feels awkwardly empty and desolate, but i still have to keep LIVING out of it. I still have a few things that i can relocate myself in the next few days, but after that, it's the bare essentials for sustaining life, cleaning supplies, and my monster pieces of furniture ;u;

Why do i have so many heavy, heavy possessions? Why especially so many books? My arms, they are noodles. My legs aren't much better. I can't believe I haven't thrown my back out yet lmaoooo

I'm so close to catching up with my books! Here we have the triumph of time, again, as a vellucent binding, again. And this may not look super different to you from my last iteration of this project! The differences were VERY process-driven and hard to photograph, but I pinky swear that there are incremental but noticeable improvements, and i would never mix up editions irl.

First up, refresher, vellucent binding is when there's a protective layer of vellum floating over your cover illustration, protecting it. Or. If you're cheap. Paper vellum. My first time around, I realized as soon as I got the vellum paper wet that oh shit, this REALLY has a grain, and it is the opposite of what my books want. It's the first time I've ever been punished for ignoring grain, though, so I can't complain. I pressed on anyways, because what is even the point of fucking around if you aren't bold enough to find out? As a result, my vellum on the first set has noticeable wrinkles, despite only the turn-ins being glued down, and it all floats more than i wish. You have to smooth it with your fingers to really SEE the detail in the images.

So, naturally, my second time, I got bigger vellum paper, covered the whole thing in paste, plopped my covers onto there, and planned to smooth the wrinkles out. Yeahhhh, that... it was fairly forgiving in the one volume with a primarily white background, and was a goddamn nightmare on the three illustrations.

Lesson one: paper vellum is like a sandworm that wants to curl up and die at the first touch of moisture. Lesson two: it wants to hurt you. PUNISH you. Lesson three: no seriously it is so much more difficult and unforgiving than any other material I've sampled yet. The wallet cost of actual vellum may be outweighed by the emotional cost of this shit.

Naturally, I am bewitched and determined to science it into submission.

For the record: v1 (turn-ins glued, wrong grain) in the bottom left, v2 (paste everywhere, abandoned on the curb without text blocks to warp and writhe as they please) in the top center, and v3 (turn-ins glued, correct grain, more effort to pull tension on the vellum) in the bottom right. I'm not done experimenting by any means, but i need to stop for a minute until i nail the process, to save my poor toner cartridges

But the books themselves! Even though i still see ways to polish my own process, i am DELIGHTED with them. The pull of the paper vellum still wants to introduce slack and wrinkles to the cover as it dries, but there's much less! The moment you get adhesive on paper vellum you commit to a fight to the death, but I'm getting better at handling and anticipating it!

There's a level of polish in the assembly of this set that was lacking in my first and second attempts at the covers. Even if it isn't perfect yet, I'm learning so much, and have new ideas for how to troubleshoot. The idea of making this bookbinding style more accessible and affordable fills me with so much delight, I can't even articulate it. I'm still very much an amateur myself, there are lots of professional best practices I can only speak to in the abstract. Pinning down something this niche and luxurious would make me so happy. Future science will be done on single-volume sets, probably after I'm done moving, but it's at the top of my to do list!! And when it's perfected, I'm for SURE coming back to this series, it's one of my all-time faves, I want to give it the fanciest treatment my hands can devise.

Sure!! So, there's a WIDE range, even in my latest books, because there's a couple characteristics I'm juggling. The set I still have to write up a post for, it was done on inexpensive staples paper (I still have multiple packs of this stuff stored), while the two books I posted before that are done on the Church Paper bookbinding special. I spent MONTHS working from extremely generic, cheap paper, and I stand by the idea that there's nothing wrong with it! Fancy paper is one way you can level up your bookbinding, but it's not the only way, or even the first one I could pursue. Before I say anything else, I personally do encourage people to buy the really affordable staples paper without fussing about the other stuff, so they can focus on other aspects of the hobby without spending money on something you're going to print on, fold, glue, and ruin. You'll have plenty of opportunities to mess up your paper, you don't need to spend fancy money until you're comfortable.

(and you can stop there if you're overwhelmed! I think that's an entirely valid perspective to bookbind from).

First, the easiest characteristic I'm juggling here is paper color. Most books run somewhere in the bleached-white range to ivory. Some people think bleached-white is a little stark, or that ivory is just too yellow. I don't personally have strong feelings, but some people do. I might choose a cream paper if I want an antique vibe, or I might choose white if my endpapers have a stark white I want to match, but it only matters as much as you want it to.

Second, paper weight. I fuss less than I probably should, but even basic printer paper runs a range from very thin to noticeably thick. That matters to me, occasionally, for fiddly projects. I have my 32 lb paper because I needed to make wedding guestbooks feel as thick and substantial as possible. If I have a long book I want to wedge into my guillotine, I'll pick thin paper to minimize bulk. This isn't something you have to be concerned with at this point.

Third, and arguably most mechanically important, is paper grain. I really don't like the emphasis that gets placed on this when beginner bookbinders are trying to get a grasp on the hobby for the first time, I don't want you to stress about this more than you want to. I ignored it completely for months. But the idea is that paper has a grain, as if it was a miniature bamboo mat. In one direction, you're working with the grain, and it will bend or fold more easily. In the other direction, you have to force it a little. Ideally, all materials you use with a grain will have it running parallel to the spine of the book. For the pages, it means your pages will flop more easily in the directions they ought to be turning, if that makes sense.

Most commercial 8.5x11 paper is long grain, which is "wrong" for half-letter books. If you fold a piece of letter paper in half like a hamburger, the grain is wrong for a book. My position is that this is NOT something you should feel obligated to account for at first. I spent months working with the wrong grain, my wrong grain books handle absolutely fine, they aren't in worse shape than my books with the right grain, i think accessibility and not overwhelming beginners is more important than enforcing a bajillion best practices right from the start.

The link for church paper I provided is special because short-grain paper, if you can find it, will have the right grain direction for a half-letter book. At this stage in my bookbinding experience, if I'm making a half-letter book, I'll look to my short-grain paper first. If I'm making a quarto, I'll look to long-grain. If there's some other characteristic of the book that steers me towards the wrong grain, I'll just let it happen. I include this because I feel obligated to say it, not because I think you need to worry about it right now. A book that exists is better than a book that doesn't exist, and it's entirely valid to make it with whatever paper is most convenient for you to acquire. Even if you do every possible step totally wrong, a handbound fic will easily, EASILY last for years.

Two! The Disabled Tyrant's Pet Palm Fish, again. Guys, I truly forgot how much I adore this INCREDIBLY silly book. It was tied for svsss and 'with absolute splendor' for my first attempt at bookbinding. I still have my original wiggly-ass coptic of the first half of this novel. And I did it again in those early months too! And then I somehow forgot it for like two years?? Anyways, I had to go all out. Lectern book time.

But backtrack a little. I'm usually not a super involved typesetter. I'd like to be better about it, but if something is super abstract or doesn't have clear visual thematic elements for me to riff on, I get frustrated and move on. Fortunately, this is the fish book, about fishfucking, where a man has a passionate romance with his pet fish. With easy mode activated, I went for it.

Fish interior? Fish endpapers? Fish exterior? We've got it all, baby! Secretly, Jing-wang personally designed this book.

This was SO fun. I love this book to pieces. Everyone should absolutely support the coming official translation, I'll be doing so, and I'm VERY excited to throw my money at it. But in the meantime, I'll probably bind at least one more personal fancy copy! I was too fried to give this the lavish edge art treatment, but... there's always next time! Can i find a fish charm for a bookmark? I bet I can! Tooling the leather in a decorative fish design? Baby, I'm considering trying to tool this spine, next time is a given. Genuinely, my goal is to bind this book in a way so overwhelmingly thematic that Jing-wang would nod in approval. I'm a very serious artist.

Okay! I pinky swear that i am trying really hard to give myself a break, but I have a few wips i finally wrapped up and need to post. One! First up is Interregnum, by admiral_byzantium and DrMckay. This was a BIG boi, it was 200k, and I kept the font size nice and large, on luxurious thick paper so it came in at 700+ pages, but even then it was a thick 700+ pages.

I just rounded and backed mdzs, my arms weren't ready to go through all that again 😂 So instead I decided to test the limits of k118, my new favorite style. I rounded, sanded the head and tail, left the fore edge with a nice sawtooth (I like the effect a lot with the very thick paper), and then went in with a brown leather with a nice weathered finished that really said star wars to me. I added red duo bookcloth and finished it all off with pewter foil, to keep the binding classy but maintain elements of that sci fi aesthetic.

I had a really fun time with this! Some of the fonts and elements are ones I also used in my binding of jodorowsky's dune (hardigan and foglihten deh04 my beloveds), they really do it for me in balancing that retro feel and an overall effect that stil works for my modern sensibilities. And this thing is a MURDER weapon. I still haven't tested it to the k118 360 degree opening, but it gives me 180 degrees with no problem, even at this size!

Hiiiii, folks. I'm moving! That's been vaguely the process for a while, but it's really GOING now. It's a local move, which means the whole process is extra slow and protracted, rather than me being in a frenzy of artistic denial right up to the moment i vacate my hollowed-out apartment. So I'm around, I'm doing the thing again where I get horribly antsy about how creative I'm not being, but I want to fix that! No, nobody but me is shaming me for that, but i want to fix it anyways XD

Anyways, today has been eaten by the sudden revelation that going from 90% carpet to 90% hardwood means that i need to spend all my money on rugs, lmao

Oh god, i just got the text that my house's old owner is fully gone and I can start moving anytime. Fresh wave of feeling vaguely ill at the size of the financial commitment i just yoked myslet to 😂😭

Ahahaha, absolutely!!! And no offense taken! So in this case, the goal was to get that large working surface to draw art onto. But i do also like doing this when possible, even when art isn't a factor! I did mdzs/tgcf/svsss in smaller volumes too, before doing them in single volumes. It doesn't exactly... bother me to divide a single continuous story into multiple volumes, but i like it better when the whole thing is in one place.

In a traditionally published trilogy, maybe the story is continuous, but the books are structured for those breakpoints. With mdzs or longfics, i have to look for a chapter in the right approximate location that provides the cleanest division point, and sometimes there's no great answer. If I am dividing things like that, it's probably because I'm trying to keep things in my guillotine's capacity rather than commiting to a power sanding adventure (like with mdzs, haha)

It does tend towards books that are kind of unwieldy, but when i work at quarto size, you get more leeway before the books become uncomfortably heavy. Mdzs isn't GREAT to handle, but svsss is the same height/width and 900 pages, and feels FABULOUS in the hands. And honestly, in the end, i mostly read on my phone anyways XD That svsss is the only one of my books I've read major chunks of in person. For me, the process is much more important than the product! And there's a couple of ways that huge single volumes make my brain go brrr, so that's why i regularly end up there, haha

Here's a new experiment! Have you ever heard of vellucent bindings? You should look them up! The basic concept is that a delicate hand-painted cover is drawn on a piece of parchment and used to cover a book. Then a paper-thin translucent layer of vellum is sealed on top, protecting and preserving the art, and adding a gorgeous hazy overlay effect. If I understand properly, the art can also be drawn on the back side of the vellum. And this can also be done to cover inset art panels, but I really wanted to go for that whole-book effect. However, even before I became double extra broke, parchment and animal vellum are exponsive materials. Baby, we're doing this with printer paper and paper vellum.

So here are the goods! The Triumph of Time by @sunderedstar is one of my all-time favorite fics by one of my all-time favorite authors, and is still the idw1 ending that lives in my heart. Plus, the author commissioned a piece of art for each finished longfic, all of which are GORGEOUS and vibrant and just begging for that hazy overlay effect.

This was a major experiment! I cannot overstate how much I was flying blind here, and the only instructions I had were for finicky materials that I wasn't using myself. And then paper vellum turned out to be impressively finicky too! I had to redo my first case from scratch, and I was making notes on tweaks to the process all the way up through this morning. It's a mixed success, but I adore it, and I'm delighted with how well it turned out given what a gamble it was. And it wasn't an expensive experiment at all. I badly need to give my hands a break asap, but I definitely plan to repeat this experiment soon, and that will include at least one more round with this beloved series, now that the typeset is up to my current standards :D