Book Project

I’m working on my old University final project.

For my graduation exhibition, I created a storybook. It’s huge - impractical, and hard to read because of the handwritten text and A2 size of it. Ever since I finished it, I’ve been wanting to make a smaller version of it that I could actually (self-)publish and sell or give to a few select friends.

I’m finally deciding on a new style for it. I think I’ll go for a hinged polymer-clay faux leather book cover (possibly with gold foil), with the inside being something like a modernized version of old-fashioned illuminated manuscripts like The Book of Hours. It will be either A4 or A5. Ultimately, I would love to make the chapter pages out of stitched paper collage, and the rest of the artwork would consist of illustrations, printmaking, digital art, and more collage.

I’m a little worried about the polymer clay book cover part, as all the tutorials I have been able to find online are for miniature books. Why does no one create large-sized polymer sheets? Are they fragile?
Also, I have no sewing machine here, so I would have to create the chapter pages while I am at home in Finland, using my own super-ancient sewing machine from the 50’s (or my mother’s, which I believe is from the 70’s?).
I’ve also never worked with stitching paper, gold foil, and dabbled very little with polymer clay, so this is going to be an experiment for me.

I’ll be assembling the book digitally, but I should like to make one real “master copy” which is A4 and actually contains all of the real cloth, paper, and clay collage items.

Although the story itself is not perfect, I don’t want to retouch it greatly at this stage. Perhaps when I am finally doing the finished product, I will have polished it even more, but it is already the result of 1 year’s work.