Miniature Books – A Tiny Book for a Tiny Book Show

**Update: This tiny book Rewild was stolen from one of the Tiny Book Show stops on the east coast, North of Asheville. We would love to have it back. No questions asked. If found, please mail to Ashley Hackshaw, P.O. Box 910, Bryson City, NC.**

Miniature books are just part of my obsession with miniature things. My friends Maya and Amy of the Creativity Caravan put out a call for tiny books a few months ago…for their Tiny Book Show. I love a challenge so I decided to make one to send them for their tour. I ended up making a tiny hardcover book, 2″ tall and 1.5″ wide” as seen below:

There are miniature book collections all around the world. The criteria is usually that the book is less than 3″ wide and less than 3″ tall. To browse some truly amazing tiny books check out the past competition catalogs of the Miniature Book Society here.

To make the book, the first step was to cut the little pages from Strathmore watercolor paper. I used nylon upholstery thread to sew the pages together as book blocks. Instead of reinventing the wheel I’m just going to link to a tutorial that I think explains it well if you follow the numbering system she uses. Just skip to “SEWING” in her tutorial. My stitches were so small I almost needed a magnifying glass:

Oncee the pages were sewn together I started writing out the story and illustrating the pages using a combination of gouache paint, watercolors and woodless colored pencils:

The illustrations were done from different photo references. I used tiny brushes for the paintings and just kept layering mediums until I was happy with the result. The lettering was done with the smallest Sakura Micron graphic pen I had:

Sakura white gel pens are a great way to add texture and lighten up areas that need highlights:

To make the hardcover I cut out the three cardboard pieces from a cereal box. I covered them with the only canvas fabric I had, and it happened to be yellow. So I just painted the canvas using brown acrylic paint:

The finished book binding:

I glued the front and back page of the book signatures into the cover, wrapping the pages with wax paper to protect them from glue. I sandwiched the book between two rulers and held it with a binder clip until dry:

The finished book!

Miniature Books = Tiny Paintings:

The story I chose was based on a short film I embedded at the bottom of this post that tells how wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone. Boo loves the story and so I decided to make her a small book that she’ll have to remind her of the power of nature. These are what the pages ended up looking like:

(Somehow I skipped scanning pages 4 and 5…but I already sent the tiny book off so I’ll have to update it when I get it back.)

If you haven’t yet watch the film about wolves changing the rivers in Yellowstone I’ve pasted it below. It’s a good one:

And make sure to check out the Tiny Book Show Schedule. It might be coming to your town and you can see the books in person!