A Wire Bracket for Displaying or Photographing Miniature Books

Shooting this miniature book for submission to the Popup II Show at Sandy Gallery in 2016 presented a bit of a challenge. The book is just 2" x 3" and doesn't open freely on its own because it is a flip book. So, how to get good photos of the interior? As you can see, I made a wire bracket from copper electrical wire.

Interior view near the end of 'The Day I Met George', a flip book and short story by Don Drake.

Here are the details.

A miniature book and a short length of Romex electrical wire that will be disassembled to make a bracket

I started out with a length of Romex electrical wire. I think this is 14 gauge. My first idea was to have the bracket hold the spine open by reaching over the top of the front and back of the book. So, this first length was appropriately short.

The end of a piece of copper wire showing the sharp end after cutting it to length. Also show are the jewelers files that will be used to take the sharp edges off.

I pulled the grounding wire out of the bundle. The cut end is a bit of a hazard to the pages so it needs to be filed off.

The end of a copper wire after filing and sanding the end round to prevent damage to other materials

Here is the result of some filing and a little touch with some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. This shouldn't scratch the pages.

Now it's just a matter of doing a little layout, bending it to shape, and trying it out.

Marking the bend points of a wire bracket

A wire bracket to hold a book open for display and photography

A miniature book being held open with a wire bracket to allow photographing its interior

I didn't really like to result of this version though. So a quick redesign and another version.

A wire bracket to hold a book open for display and photography

A miniature book being held open with a wire bracket to allow photographing its interior

That looked much better to me.

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Last updated: 2016-08-18 | Published:

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