Maria's Shell Mini Travel Book

Yes you guessed it. A book made with the most awesome shell covers made by Maria Maair
When i asked maria about her little shell mini this is what she had to say.


Gee, What is
This is my first mini book. It´s a travel book. Normally I do rather big -and heavy - books to take with me on holidays. This one was done in a couple of hours because I didn't have any time!

Did you leave it to the last minute?
I agreed on short notice to travel with a friend to Brasil, and it was like - "Do you want to go to Brasil there is a big discount now!?" and I was like "Ok let´s go!!" - and one week later we were on the beaches of Natal (Brasil).

Why the Shells?
As I had little time to prepare, I had to work with things I already had at home. The shells are from the wonderful beaches of "Cabanas" in Tavira - Algarve, Portugal. There are always lots of beautiful shells on that beach and I just can´t resist so I have tons of shells at home!

What else did you use?
The paper is handmade and was given to me when I visited the "Carvalha Gorda" Paper Mill some time ago - It was a trip organized by me, to show how ancient paper was made, to the class I was teaching.

What did you use it for in the end? How is it put together?
The book is a travel diary, it has one bi fólio (quire) for each day. The colors of the papers are all beach related, and there is actually one paper that has sand in it´s composition. So there are blue and yellow pages. Of course The book covers are shells because the trip was to the beaches of Natal. I dont know the scientific name of the shell I'll need to check. I made the book as you would make a medieval binding.