A Wee Book

Nina Bagley

Spend a day constructing a tiny copper-covered book with four (or more, depending on how ambitious you are!) mat board, shadowboxed pages. Hidden within matchbook, mica, and paper shadowboxes are tiny treasures that you may have had tucked away for years, but have been reluctant to display, for fear of losing them. Now they’ll have the perfect showplace, in a lovely patinaed copper and fabric book of their own. We’ll have fun building each page, and then embellishing front and back with paints, papers, however you wish. There is something magical about a book that can be held in the palm of one’s hand; and a book that contains tiny treasures is that much more special, indeed.

Supply List:

• A $10.00 kit fee (copper prices have steeply risen), collected in class, includes a pre-cut 2 ¾” x 3 ½” copper cover set (front and back), liver of sulphur for tarnishing, a copper embellishment frame, and a ribbon threader.
  
  
• Materials needed from home:
  
  
• Pair of needle-nosed pliers and wire snips
• Japanese screw punch with #3 tip*
• Package 1/8” short and 1/8” long copper eyelets*
• Eyelet setter*
• Small lightweight hammer
• Cutting pad (helix) and utility knife (exacto)
• Metal ruler, scissors
• PVA glue*
• Paintbrush, cup for water, paper towels
• Medium-grit sandpaper, palm-sized
• Masking tape
• Package of large piece of mica*
• Scrap papers for embellishments
• Pens, colored pencils, stamps, pads
• Old book text, optional
• 4 pieces of mat board, pre cut to 2 ¾” x 3 ½” (you may bring extra if you want)
• 4 empty matchboxes or more
• findings (treasures) for your boxes
• small bit of cotton for backing of objects in boxes (or batting)
• heavy fabric (upholstery weight – cotton is better for gluing) for spine; you will need two pieces 5” wide by 3 ½” long for a book thickness of 4 pages.
• 3 yards of soft ribbon, no wider than 1 inch
  
  
• Take advantage of the wonderful beach at Fort Worden to gather some wee treasures for your book beforehand, if you’d like. See you there!