Do you enjoy reading books? Do folks call you a „bookworm“?

Then this instructable is for you!

Pimp your reading nook with you very own bookworm diorama.

This little fella chew all it's way through an old book and made itself a home.

Maybe you have a dear friend, that hardly get's it's nose out of the books, and you want to give away a very special selfmade gift.

Whatever your motive is, this upgrade for every reading nook, is quite easy to achive, with basic sculpting and a little colour, you'll reach the goal.

Be my guest!

Step 1: Tools and Materials for This Project

This project can be made with a range of different materials, I write the materials I used in bold letters, and give advise for optional materials behind.

Materials:

fairly thick old book from thrift shop

air dry clay or any other modelling clay, ovenbaked works fine to.

watercolours or acrylic colours

fine liner or other marker

glue

small skrews and wire – or a picture hanger

twine and brass pin – or a small hook, for closing the book

Tools:

jigsaw – a cutter works as fine, just way slower

wood drill - if you use a cutter, there's no need to drill a hole

scissors

pencil

fine paint brushes

( hot glue gun)

Step 2: Prepare the Book

check if the book, has some decorative pages – maybe nicely coloured, thick embossed paper or a cool print – remove this pages before working with the book and put aside.

draw the bookworms „living hole“ onto the books cover,

you may choose any shape you want, I'd recommend a round channel-like shape.

Open the backside cover and fold it and some pages to the side – you don't want to cut them.

If you choose to work with the jigsaw: drill a hole through all remaining pages

give good pressure to the book, and don't drill to near the books edge.

If you use a cutter in the next step instead of a jigsaw, there's no need for a drilled hole!

Step 3: Cutting

with good pressure, saw along the drawn line through all pages EXCEPT the back cover and pages you folded aside.

Make sure to wer safety gear appropiate to sawing with power tools.

Method 2:

with a sharp cutter, cut your way through all pages – this will take some time, but works just as fine as with the jigsaw.

Watch your fingers!

When done, use a cutter to roughen up the inside of the pages – the cut get's a more crude look like that.

Step 4: Sculpting the Worm

line the hole with tin foil, to avoid stains on the book.

think about the bookworms size according to the books size, for good proportions.

roll 5 ball shapes, in different sizes – think the torso as biggest ball, slightly smaller for the head and getting smaller from torso to tail.

Make a small cone shape for the tails tip.

Assemble the balls into the hole: you want to achieve a kind of reading position for your bookworm.

When you're happy with the position and proportions, give the head a little detail.

Sculpt nose and ears, and maybe give it nice high chin bones.

Set aside to dry, or bake in oven, if you used ovenhardening clay.

Step 5: Interior

sculpt some interior to make it more cozy for the bookworm.

Some exampels:

Make some books: cut some of the pages in small rectangular shapes, glue on the back and give it a clay cover.

Make a wall clock from an old wrist watch ( cool if it's still working) – just make sure you can change the battery when needed.

A small desklamp.

A picture or other wall hanging.

For this project I used an old pocket watch from the thrift shop.

Step 6: Painting the Bookworm

for air dry clay I like to use simple water colours to paint, I like the matte finish.

Some ovenbaked clays need to be painted with acrylic paints, check the package for information.

The Bookworm may disassemble while drying – that's no problem, you'll glue it back in place after painting.

Give the worm as much detail you want, some eyebrows, a beard, big eyes.

Step 7: A Little Love to the Books Cover

use the nice pages you removed in step 1 and cut some covers

I choose to tear some of the corners apart, for a more smooth look

Find a nice fontstyle for lettering, and write „The Bookworm“ in fine letters on a sheet of paper until you're fine with the look.

Then copy it to the actual cover piece – place it on top of the cover piece and trace the letters with good pressure, so that you leave a vague imprint on the cover piece underneath.

If this doesn't work for you, you can of course use carbon paper or even your printer.

With the fine liner trace carefully the imprint

you may want to add some details on the corners – let your creativity flow.

Once you're happy with your cover pieces, glue them into place.