The dramatic red, orange, and white rock formations rise majestically from the stage brush spotted valley. It is a landscape that awes the people who flock to it. It is a landscape being loved to death by the increasing population who build at the rocks feet.

Sedona Scapes is a little book that captures the sublime beauty without the intrusion of man. Sometimes this is easy to photograph by hiking into back ravines to find breathtaking vistas and surprising little discoveries. Sometimes it requires the wonders of computer technology to remove a road scratching the horizon, or to erase a house built too high on the terrain.

As I experienced and photographed the vivid colors of Sedona, I was thinking in terms of images, pages and how to convey the sense of this amazing place. While I held a red rock in my hand I noticed the flat layer quality of the rocks, I thought it would be great if I use the Sedona's rich red rock book for covers. But the sandstone rocks were crumbly and messy. Ok, I thought if the not the real rock how about a rock look-a-like?

I remembered seeing sometime ago a book with a granite cover. I found out it was really made from polymer clay. I bought some clay to experiment with and found that it worked perfectly. I rolled the clay out with a rolling pin, cut out rectangles and then pressed the real Sedona rocks that I had brought home into the clay to give it an authentic texture. So in a sense they are the real Sedona rocks cast into tough permanence. With a rubber stamp I gently I "chiseled" the book title onto the cover, baked them 15 minutes at 250 degrees and presto, book covers that covey a sense of Sedona.

The inside of the book is printed on a 6 color digital printer using pigmented archival inks on specially digital coated paper. I found that PVA, the book glue I use for most everything, did not stick well on the clay. So I had to do a bit of testing to find stronger glue.

Last I attached the covers to the text block of Sedona images to make Sedona Scapes. The book is 2.25" x 2.75", with 22 unique photographs on 34 pages. Limited to an edition of 45.