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CDHM
SEPTEMBER 2009
Featured Category

Books, Books, Books By Alice Bell
CDHM Asst Editor

It's time for all the kiddies to go back to school. Paper, pencils and... Books!

Those of us who were members of the Nerd Herd never let something like summer stop our obsession with reading but for lots of students summer vacation meant three months of not having to crack a book.

Printed materials are even part of the miniature world.

The Fairy Tale Castle of actress Colleen Moore has a library filled with hand-written originals from authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Rice Burroughs as well as the smallest Bible in the world with readable print made in 1840 and a miniature dictionary given to Moore by her father that started her obsession with all things tiny.

Miniature print artists have continued to produce fine, readable editions for the dollhouse library - and classrooms!

"I started making miniature books when I got my first dollhouse many years ago. One of the rooms was a replica of my husband's study and I needed books to fill the shelves," said mini bibliophile Pat Carlson.

"I began making books with no pages out of foamboard and construction paper. Then, as computer technology progressed, I started making the covers on my computer using graphics from real books, but still using the foamboard," she continued.

Covers and foam board worked well and she filled many shelves, but it wasn't the product she really wanted to make.

"I decided I wanted to make real miniature books with pages and readable text. After many months of research and trial and error (and LOTS of wasted ink and paper!), I finally produced my first authentic, readable miniature book," she said.

Those first printies had actual, readable pages - if your eyes were good enough or your magnifying glass strong enough! But she still wasn't satisfied.

"The hardest thing I learned was how to print on both sides of the page. The hardest thing to do was to figure out how to print the tiny pages on both sides and the day I finally figured it out was a woohoo day!"

Her gallery shelves are filled with everything from fairy tales to history and everything in between. A pet project has been antique cookbooks - miniature kitchens need miniature cookbooks after all!

"The miniature books I make range from Fairy Tales to World History… I enjoy making all kinds of books and hope to preserve as much literature in miniature as possible," she said.

Every miniature house should have at least one book - after all, what real life house doesn't? In the miniature schoolroom the sky should be the limit - it should even include a banned book or three.

"I think books are a world unto themselves. With the proper parental and/or instructor guidance, children can gain experience and knowledge from even those controversial books. Who has the right to say what should be read or what should not be read? Only through the acquisition of knowledge in every genre can we form those opinions that make us who we are."

In her own house, fantasy books fill the shelves alongside poetry.

"I love Fantasy, especially J.R.R. Tolkien. I've read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy several times and always find something in the stories that I missed before. Call me a silly romantic, but I also enjoy Victorian poetry - especially Elizabeth Barrett Browning," said Pat.

Visit the Fine Miniature Books Galleries today!