From Illustration to Literary Pins

A Book to Wear began in 2023, somewhere between a bookshelf and a sketchbook. I started the project with a small collection of literary animal pins featuring beloved authors like Kafka, Virginia Woolf, and Sylvia Plath. Somehow, turning writers into tiny wearable objects immediately made perfect sense.
The idea caught on surprisingly fast. Bookstores seemed to understand it instinctively. Here was something playful, literary, and slightly unusual: a product that felt perfectly at home beside novels, short stories and poetry collections, despite barely existing in bookstores before.
At the heart of the project was a simple thought. We readers, don’t always want to leave books on shelves. Sometimes we want to wear them, carry them around, pin them onto a jacket, or quietly recognize another reader across a room.
That’s how A Book to Wear has grown: a collection of small enamel pins inspired by literature, somewhere between an accessory, a secret handshake between readers, and a way of keeping books close in everyday life.

I’m Judy Kaufmann, illustrator, book lover, and the person behind every miniature book pin. Based in Barcelona, I started A Book to Wear from my studio as a way of bringing together two things I’ve always loved: literature and drawing.

Today, the collection includes more than 50 enamel pin designs inspired by authors, novels, literary characters, and classic books, specially created to connect bookstores and readers.

Living inside bookstores

From the beginning, the natural place for the project was bookstores. The idea was for the pins to live alongside books: on display tables, near the counter, as small literary objects that naturally accompany them. Somewhere between collectible objects and miniature books, the collection was created as a different kind of bookstore merchandise, something readers could discover unexpectedly while browsing.

Over time, A Book to Wear has become a collection of literary enamel pins for bookstores, available wholesale for independent bookshops looking for thoughtful literary accessories and small gifts for readers. The pins are often selected as book lover gifts, alongside books, stationery, and other curated objects that belong naturally within contemporary bookstore spaces.

One of the things that shapes the project most is its close relationship with independent bookstores and booksellers who carefully select objects for their shops. Every bookstore has its own sensibility, criteria, and way of presenting books, and that ongoing dialogue has helped the collection evolve organically over time.

Over the years, A Book to Wear has also found its place in design stores, museum bookstores, and concept shops, which feels natural for a project that exists somewhere between illustration, object design, and literary culture.

Barcelona → worldwide

The project is based in Barcelona, where all designs are created and orders are shipped worldwide. Small in structure but international in reach, A Book to Wear has grown organically through independent bookstores, museum shops, and curated literary spaces looking for distinctive bookstore gifts and literary merchandise wholesale.

The catalog has expanded gradually over time, combining classic literary references such as 1984, Mrs. Dalloway, Mary Shelley, John Fante, Virginia Woolf and Franz Kafka with more recent additions including Marcel Proust, Ursula K. Le Guin, Shirley Jackson, and Georges Perec. Today, the collection includes more than 50 literary enamel pins inspired by novels, authors, fictional characters, and iconic books from contemporary and classic literature.

The original idea behind the project remains unchanged: to create collectible literary objects that readers feel connected to, pieces that feel personal, familiar, and easy to carry into everyday life.

Harper Lee enamel book pin for independent bookstores and concept shops, illustration by Judy Kaufmann

Collection de livres sur les animaux