A tiny little book

Preparing Pigeon Pie for it's appearance at the International Model Boat show this weekend, I realised that whilst I'd painted a resin figure bought from a dolls house shop to lounge around on the desk, she was reading but I didn't have anything for her too read. I couldn't put the model on show without sorting this out. If I did the appearance would be of a bored teenager grumpily lying on the deck rather than someone enjoying their trip down the river.

Someone said every problem is an opportunity and this gave me an idea. I've written a novel, so how about giving my miniature reader a copy to enjoy ?

The cover art was dragged into a DTP package and reduced to 1/12th scale. At the same time I did a copy of the first title page in the book. Both were printed on photo quality paper to make sure that the resolution was high enough for them to be read. As an added bonus, the shiny paper gives the correct sheen to the paper.

After cutting out the cover, I stuck a slip of plain paper inside it but only to the back. The real book has an inner cover and so it's nice to be able to fan the pages a little. Having said that, being able to flick through the entire volume would be a step too far so the rest of the pages are represented by a rectangle of Daler board which is solid enough to fold the spine around. On to this is stuck the printed inner cover and the job is complete.

With this my scene is complete - our reader is about to embark on a new novel as the vessel she is travelling on potters down the river on a lovely summers day.