#Fine Bindings

[painted-bees]

ah, yes. My favorite sisyphean task of the aquarium hobby: cleaning the dirt. Because the dirt needs to be clean.

clean dirt.

[ricecaqes]

HIIIII GUYS I FINISHED MY BINDING OF ISAAC ANIMATION PLS LOOK AT IT!!!!!! i worked very hard on it and it ate my soul and i fought against adobe animate every step of the way . but it is DONE. yay

[uwmspeccoll]

It's Fine Press Friday!

Anatomy, the second book by poet, physician, and psychiatrist Alice Jones (b. 1949), is a letterpress chapbook printed in an edition of 100 copies, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama by the Bullnettle Press in 1997. Asa Peavy ran the press out of Tuscaloosa before moving on to work for Yale University Press and the San Francisco Public Library. The type is Gill Sans, cast by Michael and Winifred Bixler. 

Drawing on her medical training (she studied Internal Medicine before completing a second residency in Psychiatry), Alice Jones’s anatomical poems explore “The Guts,” “The Senescent Ovary,” “The Larynx,” and other organs before concluding with the “Life Cycle.” A number of these poems originally appeared in medical journals.  

The illustrations are by Berkeley-based book conservator Coriander Reisbord. Round reduction linoleum cut prints of bone, nerve, connective tissue, muscles, and platelets adorn Jones’ poems.  Reisbord also bound most of the copies in this edition. According to the colophon, the first 85 copies were bound with paste-paper boards with transparent vellum spines, with the remainder presented in sheets or with full vellum binding. Our lovely copy, decorated with metallic organ cutouts, was uniquely-bound in leather by Priscilla Spitler in 2000. 

Our copy is another donation from the estate of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick.

View other books from the estate of Dennis Bayuzick.

View other Fine Press Friday posts.

-- Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[goatsandgangsters]

one of my favorite things about My Beloved Man Jack Alston

is that he's always like I Don't Care, I'm Not Involved, You Can't Even Imagine How Indifferent I Am, Leave Me Alone, I Don't Want To Be Here

but then the second you get him caring about someone even a little, he has absolutely ZERO CHILL about it

man's out here insisting he's a loner and acting all put upon about anyone intruding on his quiet solitude™, but all somebody has to do is snark at him once and he starts vibrating with the Need to Take Care of Them

[cellgatinbo]

bbh’s absolute heart attack seeing richarlyson almost die in chat

[littlemaybunny]

Halloween with Pico and NG kids

My Halloween art actually saw the light, even the week after the Halloween itself

.

.

.

P. S. Reason why I just finished it:

[ezkezpez]

Well, Mr. Morris sat down beside me and looked as happy and jolly as he could, but I could see all the same that he was very nervous. He took my hand in his, and said ever so sweetly . . .

"Miss Lucy, I know I ain't good enough to regulate the fixin's of your little shoes, but I guess if you wait till you find a man that is you will go join them seven young women with the lamps when you quit. Won't you just hitch up along-side of me and let us go down the long road together, driving in double harness?"

- Bram Stoker’s Dracula

5/? Illustrations

[kakushusband]

Happy 2 years of me being mentally ill as fuck about this freak ♥

And here's a bonus also! Couldn't help myself.

Yknow like. the pin was cool and all, and its nice that doing stuff with photo paper works too - but i wanted to actually *paint* this abomination. you can be absolutely certain this is going straight to the car keys

[cobra-creampuff]

i feel like i remember people posting happy birthday character posts for mickey in june? is that right? well, even if he doesn't have a canon birthday (or if he does and it's. wrong.) he has a summer birthday To Me. and i've never seen a guy who is more obviously a capricorn than ian, so! if mickey's summer birthday is indeed in june specifically (i'm thinking cancer, but it would also be really cool if mickey and mandy are both gemini - twins who aren't twins), then mickey is technically two years older than ian for about half the time.

[uncanny-tranny]

Hi! would you by any chance have tips on how to get a binder when your parents refuse to buy you one? ☹️

That's definitely a sensitive and complex answer, and while I might not know of the best option for your unique situation, there are some ways you can go about this.

If it's a foregone conclusion that you cannot convince them of this, what I used to do is DIY my binder. The ways I primarily did this were:

Option One: Wearing a camisole that was one size smaller than I actually was (so, wearing a small instead of a medium, for instance), then folding it up over my chest. As a disclaimer, this may only work well if you are smaller in the chest

Option Two: Layering two sports bras in my size over each other. Some of the DIY tips I found before I got a traditional binder advised to wear one sports bra in your size, then wear another sports bra backwards in a size smaller. I would advise against this for potential safety reasons, but also because (at least personally), it can be ineffective and a waste of resources.

Some people have also had friends or other family members order their binder for them, but this can be risky, depending on your situation. While I don't know the ins and outs of your specific circumstances, risk management is important to me, so I would recommend this if it is a risk that is acceptable to make.

I understand what it's like to not have access to this resource, so what I will do is advise you against:

Binding with ace bandages (I did this before (multiple times, in fact, because of dysphoria), and believe me, not only did it hurt like hell, but it constricted my body so heavily that I may have done long-term harm)

Wearing a DIY binder (or any kind, for that matter) for longer than your body can handle

Doing DIY in such a way that even mimics binding with ace bandages. This means that your binder shouldn't constrict your ribs, breathing, or range of movement

Here are some general good practices that you should use to guide you for any type of binding, whether traditional or DIY:

When you start binding, only do so in very short sessions to begin with. While binding shouldn't outright hurt, it can be a weird transition while your body is getting used to that new sensation

Minimize heavy lifting or exercise while binding. If it is unavoidable, drink plenty of water and take plenty of breaks

Stretch after binding

Don't bind while sick or have inflammation in your lungs or chest

If you DIY, treat your binder like it is a traditional binder. Don't make the mistake of assuming you don't need to listen to your body because you aren't using a "traditional" binding method

Ultimately, listen to your body. If it is telling you that it needs a break, honour that. Your body isn't punishing you, it is trying to keep you (and it) safe, even if it doesn't feel like it

In the end, this isn't perfect. Sometimes, parents do come around, even in their own ways, even if little by little, they come around. When I first came out officially around 2016, I was convinced that my transition would be completely forbade by my family; I concealed a lot of it in the worst instances of this. However, now, I think most of my family has come through their own journey with the understanding of the reality of what and who I am. I tell you this, anon, because I want you to know that this, too , shall pass. You can make it. I know this might be devastating to you, and believe me, I know what that's like. But it won't be forever. These bridges aren't burnt forever, and I hope you can find your happiness and contentment wherever it may be.

[saggitary]

As my holiday gift from me to all of you, I present chapter 23 of TTTBU

I think this picture sums up my current mental state I fear

Tags! @snarkyfina @bees-flowers @jarchvast-likearchvistbutthevast

Let me know if you’d like to join the Ties That Bind Us tag list! You can respond with a 🦆 and I’ll add ya 😁

[daveyfvckingjacobs]

do you ever think about jack in agony after his injury, slipping in and out of consciousness, feverish and sick and unsure what’s real or not, not knowing if he’ll be able to walk again or even survive the infection to make it back to england. going through it all utterly alone, knowing not a single person on earth cares enough to be by his side through through the aftermath and that it’s almost his own fault. hardly knowing who or where he is, just that everything hurts and that the one person who he would survive for is already dead but he survives for her anyway because there would be hell to pay if he gave up. even if it’s easier than the pain and struggling and bloody minded determination it takes to get back up after i

do you ever think about him alone on a tiny camp cot, too weak to even lift his head, bloodless and hurting. wishing elsie was there to poke his side and tell him he looks awful and that he was an idiot for enlisting in the first place. making fun but holding his hand when the fever spikes again, the way she would when they were young. do you ever think that maybe the pain and infection made him think she was there, call out for her half consciousness or see her face in a nurse passing by

cause I do

[uwmspeccoll]

It’s Fine Press Friday! 

Today we’re taking a deep dive into Songs for Gaia, a slim edition of poetry by Gary Snyder (b. 1930). This understated, beautifully-crafted letterpress volume was printed in 1979 for Kah Tai Alliance at Copper Canyon in Port Townsend, WA, a fine press dedicated solely to poetry since its founding in 1972, and was handbound by poet and bookbinder Samuel Green. It features woodblock illustrations by poet and printmaker Michael Corr (b. 1940), who learned his craft while living in Kyoto from block printer and illustrator Takeji Asano (1900-1999). Asano was a notable figure in Japan’s Sōsaku-hanga woodblock printing movement. The book is quarter bound in cloth with a cover marbled in a finely executed combed feather pattern, a touch that lends a hint of psychedelia to its otherwise traditional aesthetics. It was released in a limited edition of 300 copies.   

Snyder, who is popularly known for his time amongst and spiritualist influence on the Beat poets and the counterculture of their generation (along with Kerouac’s portrayal of him as Japhy Ryder in the 1958 novel The Dharma Bums) spent 13 years in Japan (1956-1968) studying Zen Buddhism, forestry, and ecology. A scholar of Asian languages versed in cultural anthropology, he also studied calligraphy with accomplished calligrapher and seal carver Charles Leong during his time at Reed College. Snyder’s calligraphic signature graces the half-title page of this edition.  

This modest yet potent edition of Songs for Gaia is a fitting form for the work of a poet whom writer Bob Steuding once characterized as cultivating an “accessible” style and “a new kind of poetry that is direct, concrete, non-Romantic and ecological.” As Snyder wrote of his own work in A Controversy of Poets, “I try to hold both history and wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times.”  

View more Fine Press Friday posts

View more woodblock illustration posts

View more marbling posts (shout out to Alice, our resident marbling expert!)

-Ana, Special Collections Graduate Fieldworker

[dieselpvnk]

first drawing of 2024 as a followup to the last drawing of 2023

[beaulesbian]

“So you’d risk your life for theirs? Self-sacrifice on self-sacrifice...you’re a weird one. You only get one life. You have to fight for it, no matter who you hurt in the process. There’s no other way to survive.” - Wolfwood to Vash, episode 4 || Trigun Stampede

[no-brain-just-good-omens]

i think to be honest if i slept a night in my binder my ribs would probably be fine. they seem sturdy enough