365: Make a Book a Day: Book 319 - "I'd Rather Be in San Miguel" - Accordion Fold Miniature Book with Talavera Tile Covers

A Book a Day? What's Up With That?

Hi, and welcome to this year-long project. So what's this all about and how did it happen, you might ask. In mid 2007, artist Noah Scalin decided to make a skull out of anything he could find, every day for a year. It stretched him in ways he never imagined, as an artist, a writer and a person. His experience turned into a blog that went viral, and then a book.

Others have picked up on the idea: 365 Hearts, 365 Masks, 365 Bears drawn on a cellphone, 365 paper napkin mustaches.
I wanted to play, too, and I chose books. I love books, I know a bit about making books (thanks to my talented book-maker sister, Marilyn Worrix), and they're broad enough in definition to give me a lot of creative leeway.

The whole point is not really the books. The idea is to stretch myself in many ways as an artist and a person, to set up a discipline, stick with it and see what that teaches me.

I hope you'll join with me and follow along on the journey chronicled here, and let me know what you think.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Book 319 - "I'd Rather Be in San Miguel" - Accordion Fold Miniature Book with Talavera Tile Covers

Here's a miniature accordion fold book about my favorite place in the world - San Miguel de Allende, in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. I lived there for 10 years and it will always be home. I WILL go back.

For now, I use the hundreds of photos I've take of San Miguel to slake my thirst for it. So when I found these tiny 2" square talavera tiles made in a town very near San Miguel, of course they had to be a book, and of course it had to be about San Miguel.

I first covered the backs and the edges of the two tiles with dark blue mulberry paper and painted more PVA glue over the paper for durability. Then I chose 22 of my favorite photos I've taken in SMA and cropped and sized them down to under 2" then printed them out. I made the long accordion fold out of Arches Textwove paper and folded it into the accordion, then glued the photos to the pages. Finally, I glued the end pages onto the backs of the tile covers.

This is really a precious little book. I think I have more of these tiles, so perhaps I will make a small edition of this miniature book.