Project: Book-making for dolls

Those are cool. My dolls love books, too. Thanks for the tutorial.
Susan

 

Great ideas....and I am glad to see that some dolls out there read more than nManga and fashion magazines! k.

 

do you have suggestions about how to apply the woodglue? I've always had trouble with lumps and whatnot... Did you use a paintbrush?

 

If you look in novelty keychains you can sometimes find tiny blank notebooks that are exactly the right size.

 

Lol! So much easier than my books! I need to learn to simplify!

 

Very cute idea!

I've also done something similar to this by covering those tiny-sized post-it notepads that are about an inch or so long. The pages of the notepad look a little more like a book - you just have to look around for some that are the cream color, not the neon colors you usually find. If you had access to one of those heavy-duty paper cutters, you could probably cut the larger notepads down too.

Kim

 

That's an awesome tutorial! I'm definately going to keep that in mind when I make my dolls. Could you help me though? When I was reading the tutorial I was thinking "Oh, magazines!" Are there blocks thinner than what you have used?

 

I made a real book for a Valentine's Day swap partner...I laid out the pages in Quark (I'm a graphic designer by day) cut them out, then perfect bound (glue bound) the pages together, then affixed them to a paper-covered cardboard cover.







It was relatively simple to make, and very inexpensive. If anyone's interest in a tutorial, I'd be happy to do one.

 

I think it's safe to say, If you're willing to do a tutorial, people will want read it.

I personally am very interested in your Bindery process (binding pages together).

 

I'd love to see a tutorial for making mini books Kate! Please write one up =D

 

I would love a tutorial. That book is amazing!!! Where did you find the typed pages for the inside of the book?

 

It's a real book (or pamphlet actually) called the Art of Kissing, by Hugh Morris. The book in its entirety can be found at http://www.net127.com/kissing/
It was for a Valentine's swap, so I thought it might be appropriate
I retyped the text in a design program (Quark, InDesign, Pagemaker, etc.) onto very tiny pages I had set up. The real pamphlet only had a dozen or so pages, but shrunk down and retyped it came to almost 50 pages. I'm trying to find other short stories to miniaturize.

 

I'm ridiculously interested in a tutorial, Kate! Please, O Maker of Books, tell us how you did it! I want to make Ed a tiny library, but one that he can actually read...!!!

 

Workin' on it, should have something in the next day or two...

 

Ooh I'm really interested in this! that book looks great!

 

Hmm, many if not all of Edgar Allan Poe's works are pretty short. They would make good stories to convert (especially around Halloween). Shakespear has many short poems and sonnets, if you like his style. Maybe he has a one-act play or two that could make the transition well. And the good thing about classics is that you don't have to worry about cover art. XD Just use a nice font in Photoshop and make it look crisp and professional.

If you don't mind childrens' books, the books by Beverly Cleary could probably be divided up by chapter in many cases and turned into a series of small books. Her chapters tend to be able to stand alone in some, if not many cases. I remember when I was in elementary school, our textbooks would sometimes use stand alone chapters of her books. I recall Ramona being particularly amusing.
Many childrens' books are pretty short, actually. However, many of them are probably a little too childish for your tastes, but some are pretty good, as I recall.
You could probably also divide up Gulliver's Travels into a series, actually.... Every place he goes could be made into it's own book.

Didn't Alexander Dumas do a lot of stuff that could stand alone for magazines like a series or short stories? Or am I thinking of Charles Dickens? Or someone else entirely?

 

Selectively quoting:

Aren't Beverly Cleary's works still under copyright? If so, they would be a bad choice.

I don't remember Dumas or Dickens having any short works.

I highly recommend Kipling for short works. Single chapters of the Jungle Book, lots of other interestingshort stories and poetry. Something for everyone from kids to adults.

A good source of material is Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page. They have short stories as well as whole novels. I've hand bound some of those works for myself, since I find it easier to read a book than on a computer screen.

 

Thank you for the idea! Can fill a nice bookcase with them for my doll
and I would love to see the tutorial for the "open" books, 'cause I was pondering on how to make them.
Thanks a lot you both!

 

Well, as long as you own a real copy, if you just make the books for yourself and never sell them or give them away, is it really that big a deal about whether it's still copyrighted or not? No one else is going to read them, in that case....

 

This is thread is awesome. I want to see a tutorial on perfect bound books and I can't wait to make some closed books for my dolls.

 

Oh I can't wait to see a tutorial for the bound books. Even if I don't end up making some for my boys (although it's unlikely that I wouldn't make them), it'll definitely be cool to see how it's done.

 

I should have done this sooner... These are a few of the mini books I have hand bound with a quarter for scale.

The two on the right are 3cm x 4cm and made from some older manga pages.

Left back is a 3.5cm x 4cm fake springback blank book, bound in leather with parchment interior pages.

Left font is a 2cm x 2.5cm blank book, also bound in leather with parchment interior pages.

 

wow these are some awsome books. I like the little blocks of wood idea it's nice and smiple.

 

Another idea would be asking authors on FictionPress if you could use their stories in mini books or authors on Fanfiction.net ((though if you're worried about copyrights... that site is kinda like entirely copyright breakers...))

 

For those who actually bind their books, how do you do it?

 

Oubliette: Are... the books on the right Legal Drug?! I love that series! Kazahaya... So awesome that you found a way to recycle your manga!! ^__^

Kate: I can't wait for the tutorial! *so excited*

Every book maker here: Your books look so neat! I really like them!

 

I'll actually have it up in the next few days, I've been super busy for a long time. And those are some great suggestions for books to miniaturize, but I think publishing someone's fanfic would be awesome! I think I might start a service to do books of copyright free stories and people's personal projects.

 

Blank books are actually insanely simple. I first learned from online tutorials. THis is one of the more clear ones to work from http://www.daydreamingonpaper.com/0204.html

I've been working on a tutorial for another site, which includes other things I've either learned or have figured out, but I haven't had a chance to finish that one yet. (been too busy lately learning to marble paper to use as endpapers for the books I've bound).

 

I'm totally impressed.

 

I'm excited, both for Kate's tutorial, and yours, Oubliette! Thanks for the link, I've been reading old books about it that are just Not Helpful.

 

Bound Books for dolls

The method I use is called glue (or 'perfect') binding, I found that it works really well for smaller, doll-sized books where a tradtional stitched binding may get a little tough. Also, when you're setting up a book with text in it to be made up of bound signatures, it gets really tricky to paginate it properly. I'd love to see your tutorial, Oubliette, your books look really awesome!

 

yeah, I did a stitched binding on one of my tiny books and what never occurred to me is that it's actually really hard to get the signatures to be in scale without having like 2 pages in each! I just loved your tutorial Kate thank you so much