It is so small a thing...

I have a fascination with miniature books. A miniature book is defined as not exceeding three inches in height or width. It started when I discovered the work of Robert Wu. His handmade books are incredible. They are tiny beyond belief and the craftsmanship is exquisite.

Follow the above link and click on bindings. You will be astonished and delighted.

Miniature books have been around for centuries. The Lilly Museum at Indiana University currently has an exhibition of them entitled 4000 Years of Miniature Books.

Look at this Renaissance Button Book by Mary Ann Riker. It is 1.375" round miniature accordion book of the belly buttons of Renaissance cherubs. The front cover is a real button:

This book and more can be seen and purchased at Vamp and Tramp, Booksellers LLC.

Here is one I made. It is 3 inches by 3 inches bound by an exposed running stitch. I hadn’t done this binding for a while and was a little disappointed with this book because the stitching isn’t as tight as it could be. Still, it’s a pretty little thing. Its cover is vintage paper and has a postage stamp from Poland. The image is some sort of statue or doll—kind of creepy really:

Here are a couple more I’ve made recently.

Technically, they aren’t miniature books since they are four inches tall. My husband, Michael, works at Greenberg Van Doren Gallery

and travels to New York every year for an art fair there. This year, his bosses, Ronnie Greenberg and John Van Doren, invited me to come along. I made these little books as Thank Yous for the trip, which is why each has a map of New York on its cover. I got the stitching nice and tight this time. : )

Sharon

What's New

Here are a few new books we've made. Thanks to everyone who orders from us. We are having fun coming up with new ideas!

Ann

The Big Order

In early March, we were overjoyed at getting our first sizable order—well, overjoyed and a bit scared. Amy Powers at Inspireco ordered Scrap Journals, Ephemera Photo Albums and Take Cover journals: all are one of a kind, made entirely by hand and incorporate real vintage ephemera. Needless to say, all are a bit labor intensive and, of course, we like to make each and every one as special as we can. So, now came the task of putting together such a large order and delivering it within our deadline.

Pulling together the raw materials was first, followed by mapping out everything that had to be done to complete them. It also required some outside help.





My mom graciously offered her services for the assembly work, as did Sharon’s sister-in law, Kim. That went a long way toward moving things forward. They seemed to have tons of fun and having them work with us lent a festive atmosphere to our workshop. It was like kindergarten all over again with the scissors, glue and all types of great paper. What’s not to love?






In the end, we got the order done on time, had a blast doing it and were very proud of what we made. In designing the books we kept in mind what would be appropriate for Inspireco and Amy was very happy with them. She could not have been more delightful to work with and we are thrilled to have our wares available on her wonderful website.




Ann

It Ain't Pretty

As much as we’d love to show off a pristine, lovely studio, well…that is just not our way. We thought it better to show it just as it is...

a work space with shelves packed full of paper, books, buttons, tools, ribbon and boxes and boxes of ephemera and an eight-foot table that, no matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to keep cleared off. Right now it has stacks of old sheet music, letters and envelopes strewn all over it.

Truth be told, it is much more fun to look at than a clean table. It’s like when you walk into a home that has that ‘lived in’ look… there’s something comforting about it. Or if you’ve ever been in an artist’s studio, with canvases leaning against all the walls and the paintbrushes and tubes of paint right where the artist needs them, it is the same feel.

Now, on occasion, we do have a cleaning frenzy. There is a point when the chaos gets a bit overwhelming and slows down progress. At the end of the day we try to put everything back in its place and every once in while we manage to run the vacuum.

We like to keep the strange beauty around too. Some may find it bizarre that we have a vase of dead flowers, a dried starfish or a shell from a box turtle displayed, but we find inspiration in these items. You will see it in our books.

No, our workshop is not pretty, but it doesn’t really matter as long as what we produce is.

Ann