#gifted by simply-sithel

[little-cat-press]

back in october or so, @simply-sithel sent me a tiny book! She bound my story, Touch Starved, and it is so little and cute!

She made the marbled paper herself! And there is a little loop thingie in case I want to hang it on something.

I'm not sure what size to call this bitty book, but it is Smol. Smaller than my other tiny books by nearly half!

[chubsonthemoon]

Binderary week 1 book 1! This is Until My Feet Bleed and My Heart Aches, a bangin' Victuuri fic by @kazliin.

This book was SO fun to make, because it's made with the work and materials of several people! All my love to @ziezie13 for sharing her typeset, which is drop-dead GORGEOUS <3 My favorite parts are the handwritten titles, the QR codes which link to recordings of the program music during certain scenes, and the mock-ups of the in-universe AO3 pages for Victor and Yuuri, which are labeled as "Figure Skating RPF." Genius!

The beautiful cover paper (which reminds me so much of an ice skating rink, so I just had to use it for this fic!) was a gift from either @humanalias or @aetherseer at Havencon 2022 (ACK I'm so sorry I can't remember - so many supplies were traded and gifted that fateful weekend! I didn't realize how important I would think it a year later to document who I got what from, but something for me to keep in mind at this year's Renegade retreat, mayhaps...and also now I know to pack as much paper as I can, to return to favor :3). So thank you so much to everyone who made this book possible! <333

ALSO y'all should absolutely check out Zie's copy here, which is printed on 11"x 17" sheets of paper, so each page is 8.5" x 11". In other words it's DOUBLE the size of my copy, which is already pretty chonky. She made it HUGE--it's hard to tell from the linked pics--but it's literally over 4.5 pounds of pure book (@simply-sithel said it best: you feel like an epic wizard holding it!)

[tru-makes-quilts]

a midwinter gift for @simply-sithel 🤎💚

[simply-sithel]

To be briefly meta...

I use Tumblr the way I wish, which might be slightly off the norm-- which itself is probably then the norm. There are no "rules" here, just vague notions of etiquette loosely discussed, questionably agreed upon.

I have the side blog @let-me-show-you-this to reblog that which I like and want to see again. I've a third, private side blog for more fannish things. And I've got this, my main blog- purposely named simply-sithel. It's my work, posted mostly for me to reflect back upon.

Over the last year or so however I've been involved more in other's works- exchanges or gifts or collaborations. While I deeply appreciate the items I receive, I want to avoid a sense of obligation to post them. They're personal, they're mine. But occasionally something is posted here by others and I'd like to better retain it than hoarding them in my drafts, as I have been. Vanity.

So in my vague theme of subject-matter by day, I'll be scheduling things on Friday that originate elsewhere, dropping them in at noon or 3pm PST as whim dictates like I usually do.

[hexiva]

I just got the most wonderful present in the mail today! @simply-sithel sent me two tiny books, one of them a hans christian anderson book and ONE OF THEM A COPY OF MY OWN FANFIC THAT I WROTE WITH @trident! And if y'all don't know, I'm kind of obsessed with tiny books so this is just . . . the PERFECT gift. Theyre so t i n y . . . smallest books in my collection . . . AMAZING. Sithel is a real craftsmaster!

[nafeathers]

@simply-sithel asked about the construction of the 3 volume set of books I gifted to Max a little while back. So here's how I do it (with the disclaimer that I'm winging it the entire time).

Firstly, the front cover is made up of two sheets of board that are half the thickness of the back one. I cut out the shape I want from one of them.

I attach the cover paper to that board and cut out the inset as above.

I glued the inset design to the front cover this time but if getting it in an exact spot isn't an issue, I'd prefer to glue to to the second half-thickness board instead. Once that's done, glue the second half-thickness board to the back of the cover.

At this point you should google bookbinding, see how cool three-piece bradel binding is and decide you want your book to look like that. Unfortunately nothing you've done to the textblock or the boards up to this point makes it suitable for bradel binding so you need to wing it.

Glue the inside edge of the cover paper down. Then attached the spine piece to the bookcloth and fold and glue the top and bottom edge down to itself.

Then glue the bookcloth spine to the cover boards, and glue the cover paper down over the bookcloth. Then you just proceed as normal for the casing.

I hope that covers things, @simply-sithel?