Miniature Book Charms From Polymer Clay

I love books and love miniatures, so somewhere the two collided and made this project...... it could also be because I had to do several miniature books for a commission....

Whatever the reason, today I am going to show you how to make miniature books from polymer or air dry clay. I personally use air dry, but that is preference and you can use whatever you like.

1. Clay, air dry or polymer clay
2. Clay roller
3. Tissue blade or another clay knife
4. A ruler for checking your dimensions
5. Silicone paint shapers (aka color shapers) or another smooth tool to help smooth joins
6. Stylus or needle tool (or you can use a toothpick)
7. Aluminum foil for texture (you only need a tiny bit)
8. Water for painting and small paintbrushes
9. Paper towel
10. Acrylic paint (I use the following colors: Apple Barrel Burnt Umber, Apple Barrel Chestnut, FolkArt Butter Pecan, and then black.)
11. Varnish (for air dry clay, I prefer Duraclear Ultra Matte - if you want a gloss, Duraclear Gloss is my go-to)

I am making these specific ones into pins, but you don't have to. If you don't, just skip that part and you will have a tiny book. If you want to make a necklace charm, you will need an eye pin and I would lay it on the back of the pages when you put the cover on.

I am starting with the book's pages instead of the book cover. You can do either way, but since I am making this a pin I decided that it was best for me to start this way.

Roll out your clay thinly, but not too thin. This is the bulk of the book, so this will be how many pages the book has. The thinner the clay, the less fat the book will be.

Using a clay blade or knife, cut a simple long rectangle from the rolled out clay. I am using my pin for size reference as I want to cover the entire pin and not have it visible. You can make your book as big or small as you like. I used a ruler to check my measurements and to make sure I had the pin centered.

With the knife tool, cut two slits for the spine of the book. Don't go all the way through the clay, only partly. Use the blade to also make indents at the top and bottom to show the spine crease.

I like to bend mine a little bit along the spine because I think it helps them be more realistic if they aren't completely flat.

Using the blade or knife tool, cut little lines into the edges of the pages. This will show the pages of the book. Do this all the way around until you have as many pages as you want. Don't worry if they look kinda messy; this adds to the ancient, worn book look.

Bake the clay or let it dry.

Now we will add the cover of the book.

I am using brown clay because I will eventually age this to look like old leather, but you can use whatever color you want.

Roll the clay out thinly, thinner than you did for the pages. Remember, this will be the cover, so it doesn't need to be really thick. Place the book pages on the clay (lightly, so it doesn't stick) and use them as your guide for cutting out the cover. Make it just a little bit bigger than the pages.

Once that is done, stick it to the back of the page block. Since I am making a pin, I make sure that the pin is between the two layers, and then I have to cut and smooth around the pin ends. I am using a silicone tool for this, also called a color shaper or a paint shaper. It took me a while to get used to these tools, but I really enjoy them now that I have learned how to use them.

With a piece of crumpled aluminum foil, lightly press the clay book cover to make impressions. Make them random, and make as few or as many as you like. This will give a bit of an impression of aged leather.

Now I use my needle tool to score the spine of the book and then make whatever little "stitching" on it that I like.

Bake or let dry.

I am using Apple Barrel Burnt Umber.

Thin the paint out with a bit of water. Apply it to the cover in sections using the paint brush. With a bit of a paper towel, dab away the excess paint to leave some parts less covered than others. Don't forget the inside of the cover above the pages!

Color it as dark or as light as you want.

Now to give the book some realism, we are going to add a few top pages to make it more 3D.

Roll out your clay very thinly. If you are using cold porcelain clay, resin clay, or flower clay, you should not have to worry about your air dry clay breaking at this thin.

Use the book as a guide for how big to cut the rectangle for the new pages. Once it is cut out, lay it on top of the existing page block in the book and smooth it down, except the corners. I use the clay blade to make the partition in the middle, then I tear little bits off the corners, bend the corners back, or whatever to give the book an aged, worn appearance. All this is personal preference.

Bake or let dry.

Using a light brown paint, thin the paint with water and then cover the entire page spread of the book. Quickly dab off most of the paint with a paper towel so that you stain the clay. This gives the pages a brown with age look. Don't forget the sides of the pages!

Use as little or as much paint as you like to make darker or lighter spots. The more variance the better.

With the black paint we are going to add text in the book. I tried a variety of tools for this and eventually settled with the needle tool. Dip the end of the tool in the paint, then just make tiny scritchy scratchy marks on the pages. You can even do a large capital letter to indicate the beginning of a paragraph. Vary the ups and downs and lengths of the scribbles to make it look more like actual writing.

This will take a while. But eventually, you will have finished the book!

Now you can varnish the book and it is ready to go!

I think that they turned out pretty good. I had to make 10 of them, so I learned what worked and what did not.

I hope you learned something useful, and go clay today!