Book 334 - "Chloride Days" - Accordion Fold Miniature Book with Tile Covers - Coptic Binding

Going small again tonight. This little tile cover miniature accordion book is similar to the book I did a couple weeks ago about San Miguel de Allende, the home of my heart. Puttering about in the store today, I noticed that some tile magnets we had were about the same size as the ones I used on that book.

I knew I had some nice photos I've taken here in Chloride, Arizona in the last couple years. So I thought why not do another tile cover accordion book.

First I had to pry the magnets off the back of the tiles, but that was not hard. I covered the back and edges of the tiles with brown lokta paper and painted over it with PVA glue to make it stronger. I sized and printed out all the tiny photos. Then I tore strips of Arches Text Wove paper 1 3/4" wide and accordion folded it. I needed one join in a valley fold of the accordion to make it long enough for all the photos.

After folding it up, I glued the photos to the pages. I designed and printed a first page plus a last page colophon. Once I had glued the tile covers to the accordion, this little jewel was done. I do think it needs to go under some weights. It tends to want to lay just slightly open.

Some of you have probably picked up on the fact that I'm not all that fond of Chloride. But this little book (about 2" square) makes it look not so bad. So I guess that's a good thing.

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.