Phil's In A Bind

A close-up video from Phil’s compact bindery space. A small portable induction hob sits on a green self-healing cutting mat, glowing with red digital numbers. Atop it, a stainless steel double boiler is filled with a thick, creamy wheat flour paste, a wire whisk resting in the middle. There's steam rising from the bowl. In the background, a bright red bag of plain flour sits open - just having been used as the main ingredient in this mixture.

Today in the bindery I'm cooking up some wheat flour paste ready for when I move on to applying the leather to the cover of the Manacled bind.

This is my first time making this traditional adhesive. Hopefully the slow drying time makes leatherwork less stressful!

#BookBinding #Craft

Today in the bindery I was putting this text block under the knife after forgetting to leave space for the headbands whilst gluing up the spine.

It was a delicate fix but thankfully it went well and I didn't ruin hours of work 😅

#BookBinding #Craft #Books #BookSky

Today in the bindery I was speckling the edges of this super thick Manacled bind.

I opted to use this over gilding as sanding a rounded fore-edge ready for foil is very labour intensive.

Speckling with metallic ink is a handy technique to have in your back pocket! #BookBinding #Books #Craft

The secret to perfect book edges was hiding in a kebab shop | DIY Tools YouTube video by Phil's in a bind

If you want to watch the full video and find out more about how to make this low cost 3D printed book plough for yourself - then visit my YouTube channel; Phil's in a bind ☺️

youtu.be/uUZaaUCDxOo

I made this animation for my book plough YouTube video showing why the type of blade you use to trim a book in bookbinding matters so much - and I liked it too much not to share it as a short.

#Books #BookBinding #BookSky #3Dprinting #Maker #Craft

The secret to perfect book edges was hiding in a kebab shop | DIY Tools YouTube video by Phil's in a bind

Learn about what makes this blade so special and see how to make one yourself in the full video on my YouTube channel ☺️

#BookBinding #Maker #DIYtools #3Dprinting

youtu.be/uUZaaUCDxOo

Book ploughs are the traditional tool for trimming the edges of books to be smooth and flat. They usually cost hundreds of pounds/dollars because the blade requires a special geometry.

Electric kebab slicers share that geometry - so I turned the blade for that into a book plough with my 3d printer!

Ooo! I used the John Coulthart illustrations in my custom binding of Frankenstein. I had no idea there were some colourized versions of them! Very cool!

bsky.app/profile/phil...

Ely Topping & co has loads of these too! It must be a branding thing. Very lucky that this is my local bookshop ☺️

They've just bought the building next door!

I've seen so many other disabled people tell their stories of Alice's impact on their life so I thought I'd share mine. The legacy of her work will be felt for generations. Thank you so much. Rest in power.

But I could slip in and out of disability visibility at will because I found that the essay format didn't intimidate me and was approachable in a way that books didn't feel to me at the time. If I didn't start with that book I wouldn't have found I could read for pleasure. I owe a lot to Alice.

This is so sad. Alice was such a catalyst for inclusion and did such a brilliant job of lifting voices from every corner of the disability community. Disability Visibility was the first book I recorded a video on. I never really read books properly before this year due to my learning disability...

I bought the full suite for affinity 2 on a black Friday deal a couple of years ago now so if worst comes to worst I'll just keep my current version and operate without updates until something better emerges.

Capitalism is very frustrating with everything always changing hands between companies! 🫠

I learnt everything on Adobe but thankfully Adobe had exposed themselves as ruthlessly profit driven before I started making content so I was able to learn the alternatives before I became dependent on the creative suite 😅

(Davinci for video + affinity for graphic design)

I remember having to mute the word football last year because my discover feed was just wall to wall NFL even though I was actively clicking "show me less of this" on loads of it. It felt very much like they set some lazy algorithm rule to push it for new male users 😅

Are We All Frankenstein Now? | Binding My Own Edition & Reviewing Mary Shelley's Classic YouTube video by Phil's in a bind

youtu.be/P_HFsH9wC5U

A custom-bound edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, created by Phil’s in a Bind, is held open on a candlelit table. The pages are printed with white text on a black background, and an illustration in green ink shows the moment Victor Frankenstein’s creature comes to life. Around the book are brass candlesticks with burning candles, small glass vials of coloured liquids, a spool of waxed thread with a large curved needle, decorative thread scissors, scraps of leather, and a glass terrarium. The scene evokes the atmosphere of a gothic laboratory.

A custom-bound edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, made by Phil’s in a Bind, stands upright on a table lit by two burning candles in brass holders. The leather cover is pieced together from stitched patches of brown, green, cream, and grey leather, echoing the creature’s assembled body. The title and author’s name are embossed in gold, with “1818”, signifying the version of the text that the book uses on the spine and front cover. Around the book are scraps of leather, a spool of waxed thread, small glass vials filled with coloured liquids, a pair of scissors, and a glass terrarium. The warm, dim light casts soft shadows, giving the scene the mood of a gothic study.

A custom-bound edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, made by Phil’s in a Bind, stands upright on a table slightly open to reveal the golden gilded edge of the text block peeking out between the patchwork leather cover. The set around the book is lit by candlelight. It's dressed with scraps of leather and other instruments that you'd find in the kind of 19th century laboratory that Dr Frankenstein might have worked in.

A custom-bound edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, made by Phil’s in a Bind, sits posed on scraps of leather to emphasize the foil stamped title on the spine and the faux metal 3D-printed letters on the cover that sit within embossed recesses on the patchwork leather cover. There's a single candle visible on a brass candlestick casting a warm glow onto the cover. The sewing implements and potion vials are visible scattered around the table to enhance the dark academia vibes of the image.

I bound and reviewed Frankenstein - and it wasn’t what I expected. It’s less about science and more about morality, creation, and selfishness. Two centuries later, it still feels uncomfortably relevant. Easily five stars ⭐📚

Full review + custom binding on YouTube: Phil’s in a Bind

It really feels like canva randomly alternates text colours between black and white just to create friction that pushes you towards their subscription to enable the premium "brand kit" feature 🙄

To make your content look consistent you have to manually change it to what you use. It sucks!

Immune system being a buzzword is really frustrating when you've got an autoimmune condition. It makes finding stuff out really difficult because every supplement seller under the sun talks about how X thing they sell "strengthens the immune system"

Do I even want a stronger immune system? 🤷🏻‍♂️😅

I can't seem to predict what content will do well where. I'd assumed this would do best on Instagram because it's just the kind of place I expect to find my coffee loving book worms... But YouTube? Very odd. And nothing on tiktok? Lots of people like coffee and books there 😅

Shorts/reels views seem to be a random number generator.

Yesterday I put out a video about pumpkin spice coffee to accompany my legends & lattes Rebind and Review & overnight it became my most liked video on YouTube, it did about average on Instagram, and only 2 people viewed it at all on twitter 🤷🏻‍♂️

On here at least until these systems improve. As my content is mostly video that means I can't upload as often but I'll try to use this place as a little BTS of what I'm thinking about and I'll post stills of any projects I complete.

I'll try to be more active in the coming days.

Above issues even worse because the extra information conveyed in a video means longer sections of alt text are needed and it just became such a point of friction for me that I stopped posting altogether!

I want to do better going forward but I think that means not posting video content...

Implementation here just kind of sucks? The intention is great but the execution for how the content uploader has to input the text is so frustrating! It's hard to scroll to see the full text. It'll randomly close half the time. The option to add alt text to video is also great but it makes the...

Sooo... I may have dropped the ball on my bluesky account... Sorry 😅

I'm very introverted in real life and juggling all these accounts is overwhelming.

One thing I'm finding difficult with bluesky is alt text. I really want to do the best job I can with accessibility but something about the...

Rebinding Disability Visibility (part 2/4) #BookBinding #Rebind #Books #BookSky

Ooo. I should definitely make a *nice* medical notes binder for myself 😂 maybe that would encourage me to actually keep it up to date 🤔

Rebinding Disability Visibility (part 1/4)

#BookBinding #Rebind #Books #BookSky

This is how I feel about a lot of the things I make. Chronic illness means I can't work a normal job. I can make things but I don't feel comfortable charging what I'd need for it to be viable. I'm hoping I can build enough of a following doing videos to maybe attract sponsors but we'll see 🤷🏻‍♂️

ASMR moments from my rebind of Disability Visibility

#ASMR #BookBinding #BookASMR #BookSky #OddlySatisfying