Beforetimebedevils - Rewind • Ruin • Regret

The Sky Above, by @mediumorange

I am SO excited to finally share this project with everyone!! Way back in the fall of 2023 I embarked on my first foray into bookbinding, and I thought, what better work to start this hobby off on than with one of the greatest works the Brokeback Mountain fansphere has to offer, written by my dear friend Emily?

And so began my year-long journey with this work, haha.

The book is a square back bradel style binding, covered in turquoise bookcloth. I used a kettle stitch to sew the textblock, and then Lineco-brand PVA glue as the adhesive for everything that needed to be adhered.

While I'm proud of the entire book, I have to admit the thing that I'm most proud of is the cover design.

To make a long story short, I wanted to find a way to make fully illustrated covers on bookcloth, and most of the popular methods of cover design that I had seen were all very limiting for me as an artist to do the things I wanted to do. Thus much of the time I spent making this book went into deep-diving into the world of textile design and ink transfer methods.

In my research, I discovered these types of toner sheets called Direct-to-Film (DTF, lol) transfers. Basically, you can print any design you want at most any size using the full range of the CYMK color spectrum + black + white, then you use a heat press to transfer the design onto your fabric et voila: your design is embedded into the textile.

Because neither the Renegade Bindery discord nor the bookbinder reddit groups really knew what I was talking about when I asked if anyone had ever tried this method out, I put my little rodent ears on and became the guineapig lol.

The first practice attempts I made at this came out tentatively successful, and when I tried it again for the real cover, it came out perfect. I'm still floored by the results tbh. This is such a game changer and I hope more binders can utilize direct-to-film transfers in the future!

Anyways, I really hope you love your belated birthday gift as much as I loved making it, Emily 🥰 Thank you for sharing your talents with such a small fandom sphere, and I can't wait to bind more of your works in the future!!

Editing by me

Typesetting by me

Binding by me

Art by me

Jack Lowden as 'Vaughn' in Calibre (2018)

Slow Horses, S02E02 - From Upshott with Love

i want to make sure slow horses fandom have all seen this.

absolutely iconic.

plus these images (promo images for some fundraising event) he took soon after. what was he doing 😭😭

also an article of current jack talking about it lol:

The Scottish Sun

Much-loved Scots actor looks unrecognisable in hilarious old Irn Bru advert

ACTOR Jack Lowden has revealed he is still thrilled by his teenage appearance in adverts for Irn Bru. The Slow Horses star said he spots cas

After much painstaking, dedicated research, I present my findings on

The Alex Rider vs. River Cartwright Blonde British Spy Venn Diagram.

These two are basically the same. I couldn't even use circles bc it's almost all overlap. Anything else you'd add?

Ooh, that's so cool! I've been using a box cutter and then sanding, but I've noticed this can lead to an uneven edge. I love hearing about other people's processes, thank you for sharing!

anyway, your books are so pretty!! i'd love to know how you did the headbands in your bound fics? also, would love to know how you trimmed the pages so nicely and what materials you used for the covers! (no pressure of course!)

HI!

The headbands are pre-made ones, I bought variety packs of colors off Amazon. I actually don't trim my pages, I leave the sawtooth, and just try to fold as uniformly as I can. I'm working on a way to trim without having to buy a heavy duty guillotine. I'm thinking I'll try a hand planner (normally used for woodworking) and then sand it.

Prisoners (2013) / dir. Dennis Villenueve

JAKE GYLLENHAAL as detective Loki in PRISONERS (2013)

KYLE GALLNER as ALEX Alien Code | 2018

current fan creation landscape is kinda like if you went to a party with a homemade cake and everyone takes a slice and silently thumbs up at you with no attempt to start a conversation except for occasionally some guy sits in the corner with a tape recorder critiquing the cake as though he was a restaurant critic and another guy is handing the cake to an uber driver like "yeah i need you to find a restaurant that makes cake like this so i can have more of it" and the only person that's talked to you in 30 minutes is a very sweet little guy who was like "hey i liked your cake" and then ran away apologizing for bothering you the moment you said thank you.