Tuesday 22 May 2012

Mini-Book Magic

Hello, I am back again.  Not posting very regularly just now, but I am trying to post at least once a week!
Before  I get onto the Real Subject of this post... Do you remember "Herman the German"? 
Well, if you do - and those who tasted him may well do - you may like to know that Herman has his very own Website!!  Follow this link - or the one in the "Stop Press" column on the right - to take a look!
I don't have a "Herman" just now, but I'd love to try and start one from scratch - I believe the instructions are there somewhere!

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Sooo.. back to the Real Subject!

An Experiment with Miniature Books

There seem to be rather a lot of scraps sitting around my studio.  Strips of paper, trimmed from large sheets, when I cut them into pages; small pieces of bookcloth and suede; decorative paper scraps; short lengths of linen thread, too small for a large book... 

I don't like to throw away nice materials, so I thought I would do a bit of Experimenting and make some Miniature Books.

A Miniature Book is generally accepted to be a book that is less than 7.5cm/ 3" in height and width.  Which is really quite small.  Some people have made ultra-mini books... so tiny you'd need a magnifying glass to look.  Some have written tiny text in their miniature books.  There are miniature bibles, mini photo albums, mini cook-books, mini sketchbooks, miniature artists' books,  mini-book necklaces... all kinds of things

So... I thought I'd give it a try.  This is what I've made so far:
Three Miniature books...
The red pencil is a standard-sized pencil...
Teal suede leather miniature book, 5cm / 2ins square


This little book has a Longstitch mediaeval style binding in golden linen thread.  There are 20 pages of crisp off-white Fabriano paper.  It has a wrap-round leather strip to fasten it.


This little hardcover book measures 6 cm / 2, 3/8" by 5cm / 2". It has covers of Liberty Tana Lawn bookcloth, in William Morris' "Strawberry Thief" design, with a quarter binding of damson silk dupioni bookcloth.  There are 30 pages of white paper, with white endpapers to match.  It fastens with a little grey ribbon tie. 




A hardcover book, measuring 6.75cm / 2.5" by 5.5cm / 2.25".  It has covers of hand-marbled paper, by Rhonda Miller with a quarter binding of grey suede leather.  There are 30 pages of heavy-weight white artists paper, stitched with grey linen thread.  The end papers are a dark blue art paper and it fastens with a grey ribbon tie.
My three little mini-books!

These are by no means perfect - they are very much "learning" pieces.  Lots of little faults - such as the two hard cover books refusing to close, once I had added the end-papers (hence the ribbon ties!), and I didn't do the longstitch binding very well.  I still have lots to learn.
Still, I am pleased with them - they're fun and cute and quite pretty.  A couple of hours well spent!

12 comments:

  1. They are soooooooo cute!!! Very cool indeed.

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  2. Adorable little treasures! Love them!

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  3. I adore anything miniature - so I'm going to come right out and say these are my all-time favourite Lizzie creations!

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  4. Very cute! I can't imagine a hard cover book that size (although I've made soft cover books that little). And I have a friend who makes books with dominoes as the covers (and stitched bindings!).
    Thanks for the share today,
    Rinda

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  5. They are so cute! I love the one with the little bird on the front. I have piles of scraps here, too. It's hard to throw them away. Most of the time I use them on cards, or sometimes mixed media pieces. But the piles are winning! :) xox

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  6. These are adorable. I love the Strawberry thief.

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  7. All three are super sweet! I love the one with the stitched binding especially. How clever to work in such detail ...

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  8. oooh I love these. They remind me of the tiny books the bronte sisters used to write in. Very lovely.

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  9. SO cute Lizzie..they look perfect to me!
    Alison xx

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  10. These are lovely too, especially with the Morris fabric (I'm a sucker for anything he made). I started making mini books last autumn to sell at Christmas craft fairs, then failed to book a stall in time. Your post reminds me I'll have to find them again for this year!

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  11. Oh these are so darling! I love the colours and fabrics etc but I am so on love with their size!

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