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Noelle Hamlyn, Re-imagined Book Designer

In 1610, a pocket book was self-explanatory: It was a book that conveniently fit into one’s pocket. A shift more than a century later, around 1722, and it became a leather folder developed to carry papers, receipts or bills, known as a pocketbook. Gentry made its mark around 1816, to change the meaning to “a woman’s purse.” This is where we stand on the definition of pocket book today.In 2010, etymology aside, Toronto artist Noelle Hamlyn has forever changed the physical and current idea of “pocket book.” She makes purses out of books! Managing to save the book from a post-publishing world and changing it into an article of such savvy style and labour-intense craft, CGW can imagine a future twist to the etymological canon to coin the phrase “a Hamlyn pocket book.”

CGW caught up with Noelle Hamlyn during a busy changing season to talk about craft, the end of the book and the reinvention of materials. We also totally gush about how beautiful we feel her unique, one-of-a-kind pocket books are:

Creative Genius World: We love books. To be upfront, CGW was brought up in an era and culture where the idea of defacing a bound copy of anything, could only be done with huge amounts of excessive guilt and images of Hitler’s Germany burning Jewish tomes, racing through our overwrought imagination.

Given that, we understand and quite love the recent artistic bent to reinvent the book in ways that traditional publishers have failed to, hence the fabulous book sculptures of the likes of Brian Dettmer and Su Blackwell as well as your ownVestiges series. But did you have any such pangs, did you feel a cultural twinge of guilt about how you gutted books to create these fabulous purses?

Noelle Hamlyn: Yes, my hand trembled over the first book I took apart. But as soon as production picked up, I started searching everywhere for raw books. I have spent many an afternoon on my hands and knees or stretched to the max routing through stacks of dusty books. Sometimes I would just find a cover with no inside. Other times, the spines of the books would be damaged so the book sellers would be unable to re-sell them. These books are ideal for me. It saves the books from the garbage, and many of the sellers are happy to see the books used in a creative way. Many of the books, if they had not been turned into purses, would still be sitting in dusty piles. So, although there are some special books that do not get the knife, I look at re-using the books as giving them a new life.

CGW: Can you give us some background on your creative life, your early influences, your choice of exploring textile art? For example, (and maybe too obvious a question but as CGW did not so hence we can barely poke a thread through a needle): Did you grow up with a matriarchy that encouraged needlework or other textile activities?

Noelle Hamlyn: Oh, where to being with my early creative life! I grew up in a very creative household. My parents are both very artistic, and my sister is a contemporary dancer. My parents would help with school plays and come into the classroom to teach drawing. When I was little, we would spend Sundays at the AGO, and over the years we have developed a family tradition of carving 120lb. pumpkins for Halloween. As for textile specific inspiration: I wore my security blanket and stuffed animals thread bare. My mum jokes that it was only natural that I pursued textile related work. Whenever I would spend weekends with my grandmother, we would always have to have some sort of project. Sometimes it was book binding or doll making. Sometimes it was blankets or clothing. My grandmother taught me to sew, knit, and smock. If I ever have any questions or a new project to tackle, I still call my grandmother. I was lucky enough to have attended Cawthra Park’s Regional Arts Program and went on to study textiles at Sheridan’s School of Craft and Design. Most recently, I applied my textile training to the contemporary art scene, graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

CGW: You use the word “repurposed” to describe the lovely selection of linings in the pocket books, which seem to continue the overall fantasy narrative of them, as well as the vintage belts you rework brilliantly to become adjustable straps. Is repurposing an integrated part of the creative textile process for you?

NH: Repurposing is important to me, and it is very much a part of the Pocket Book concept. I am intrigued with the history of an object – be it a family blanket or an inscription found on the fly leafs of a book. I am also intrigued with continuing the narrative, giving new narratives to objects, launching them on new adventures.

CGW: The pocketbooks are so appealing because they are firstly so well crafted that, holding them, you twist and turn to marvel at their very execution, and secondly, they really appeal to childhood, to the idea of “dress-up” and tea parties in a Victorian garden. When craft meets fantasy, how does it inform the choices you make?

NH: Thank you for your comments! Quality is very important to me. I believe that to communicate an idea to its full extent requires not only a solid idea, but detailed execution. As for the appeal to childhood and dress up, I think these connections are very strong. When I watch clients select a Pocket Book, they are very often drawn to childhood memories of reading a specific book. When people see the Pocket Books they often exclaim “do you remember reading that book?” or “I read that whole series!”. The books themselves, their titles and graphics, inspire memories, and I try to work with or support those memories in my selection of colours, fabrics, and detail finishes. In my practice, I believe the boundaries between craft and art need to merge. I don’t support the perceived hierarchy that art is a higher calling than craft, and I must admit that I can be very critical of great concepts that are poorly executed. I think Canadian craft practitioners are working hard to break down the barriers currently separating craft from being fully accepted by the traditional art world.

CGW: While your Pocket Books fill CGW with childhood nostalgia, they are still very much objects of hip street style. They have a vintage fashionista element. They are very wearable. They are objects reflecting contemporary whimsy or even sometimes irony. When you see a vintage book, what is it that makes it a potential candidate for becoming one of your original Pocket Books—the design, the title, colour, it’s “cool” factor?

NH: There are a number of facts that influence my choice of books. You are right. Sometimes it is a beautiful or weird cover design. Sometimes it is just the title. There are certain books that are always asked for, for example old editions of Jane Austin, the Brontes, or Anne of Green Gables. These books are beloved by many but hardly ever found in bookstores. So when I find a half decent copy, I snatch it up. Sometimes it is the subject matter. I have also started using vintage magazines and sheet music. You never know what is going to appeal to a potential customer! I know what I like but it’s not always for everyone. You kind of have to cast a broad net. When it comes right down to it, it is a feel. I look at a book for its potential.

CGW: Finally, CGW doesn’t feel like these are simply cleverly crafted purses, which on the one hand of course they are, but it also feels like wearable art. Is that how you feel about them, that each one is a one-of-a-kind and therefore beyond “just a purse.” Is being wearable an overall goal in your work with textiles?

NH: When I first came up with the idea of the Pocket Books, I will admit, it was conceptually driven. I did not want to make just another purse. The idea of turning a book into a purse appealed to me: The purse becomes like the stories they once contained, unique, and waiting again to be filled with new adventures. So I definitely look at the Pocket Books as being wearable art. They are one aspect of my larger practice, and it is important to me that even though they are a more “commercial” item, they are consistent with my larger body of work and my philosophy as an artist. Over the last year, I have been experimenting with paper and specifically designing articles of clothing out of hand embroidered Japanese paper in my gallery work. Although the works are displayed in frames, they have the potential to be worn. This aspect also intrigues me. With the Pocket Books, I take a non-wearable object (a book) and I make it wearable. With my recent gallery work, I design a wearable piece, albeit out of paper, render it wearable but not functional.

CGW: Noelle Hamlyn, thank you for making us long for a window seat in a beautiful spot and indulge in a quiet moment with a funny old book—or rather, what’s in our Pocket Book … We love your bookish creations immensely!