Buttons : Toggles

As a child I had a winter sweater with hood knitted by my mother which had a "houtje touwtje" closure under my chin to keep the hood on my head. Later as a teen I had an Afghan "houtje touwtje" jas which was very popular in that time. So how do I explain what's a "houtje touwtje" ? Well, "houtje touwtje" is dutch and literally it means "bit of wood - bit of string", and it represents an elongated button or toggle button with 2 holes, that closes with a piece of string. The "houtje touwtje" is an ancient button closure which became immensely popular after the second world war because of general Montgomery. The allied hero was always seen in his military duffle coat with toggle closure. On the photograph below of 1946 the royal dutch family poses in those duffle coats with the "houtje touwtje" closure.
Dutch royal family in 1946 (from MADE-BY; Hall of fame)

I did a search on the internet for modern toggle buttons and found some great specimens:

1. Deer antler from AntlerQLWear
2. Polymer clay from mightbekatrina
3. Oak branches from thebuttonshop
4. Wood from LovingLeeCrafted
5. Wood veneer from rippleriverstudio
6. Ceramics from BranchDesigns
7. Bamboo from SpinBlessing
8. Plastic from ButtonJars
9. Metal from ButtonJars
10. Wood from shopangelico
11. Wood from mgi1289
12. Plastic from vinpapa
13. Plastic from Buttonsgalore
14. Plastic from azsolla
15. Bone from wiccked
16. Ceramics from Lisa Peters Art

Etsy : Google Analytics Survey

I made a survey for some of the data in the Google Analytics with the help of some European Street team members. I think it's pretty interesting if you want to know how you perform in relation to other shops here on Etsy. In any case, I really needed that for myself; so it could be interesting for others too !

Do have a look: http://handmademarketing.org/etsy-shop-google-analytics/

The pictures are a bit small in the article; if you click on the pictures below you get larger ones:

Buttons : Mother of Pearl

(from my own collection)

There were quite some old-fashioned white mother of pearl shirt buttons in my grandma's button box; they always fascinate me. They have a nice cold solid touch, a beautiful shiny and iridescent appearance and often a very interesting rough backside, they are all different and they are heavier than plastic buttons. I learned that there are actually two types of mother of pearl buttons; those made from freshwater mussel shells and those made from ocean shells, with the latter having more brilliance. Round blanks are cut from the washed shells, polished and drilled.

Button fabrication (from Stephanie Hackstein. Buttons. History and Production)
Freshwater mother of pearl buttons were made from 1892 to the 1960s along the Mississippi River in the USA. Because at the end of the 19th century, the ocean shell buttons were very popular but expensive, a German immigrant button maker started to create buttons from the freshwater shells. It was a great success; a huge clam button industry was the result. Almost every man, woman and child along the Mississippi River was working somewhere in the button industry, families camped along the shores, catching, cleaning, drilling, polishing, carding, etc. It is said that the smell was really aweful in those areas. Finally they could not compete anymore with the cheaper and more durable plastic buttons, and the freshwater mother of pearl button industry died out.

(from Iowa Pathways; The Pearl Button Story)
Beautiful ocean mother of pearl buttons were made in the 18th and 19th century, often carved, engraphed, dyed, embellished with jewels etc. They were made in France, Germany and the UK, but the shells came from the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Panama, Egypt, etc. Those first two countries are still today's main ocean shell button suppliers.

(from The Keep Homestead Museum, Monson MA)
The most expensive shell is the white macassar from the East Indies, and the most pupular ones are probably the abalone with its striking colours and the smoked black Tahiti shell, but buttons were also made from cowries, helmet shells, pinna shells and conches.

(1. abalone from annkelliott on flickr, 2 white macassar from Miyoshi, 3 pinna from wildsingapore, 4 helmet from c70iang on flickr, 5 black Tahiti from Southern Paua Ltd., 6 tiger cowrie from pieceoflace on Flickr, 7 conch from Debi123 on Flickr, and 8. yellow sand shell from Freshwater Mussels of the Upper Mississippi River System; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)

Based on:
Marilyn V. Green. The Button Lover's Book (Creative Machine Arts Series). Chilton Book Co, 1991. ISBN 978-0801980107
Muscatine Pearl Button Museum
Stephanie Hackstein. Buttons. History and Production. Markstein Verlag, Filderstadt 2007. ISBN 978-3-935129-40-4
The Keep Homestead Museum, Monson, MA

Tidbits : Peggy 7

I bought a very lovely wrap halter for Peggy on Etsy. Doesn't she look lovely in it ? Raedy for spring ! Have a look at this cute shop: anniessweatshop; she is a very lovely lady making lovely stuff !

Challenge : Native Tribes

This European Street Team's weekly challenge was called "Native Tribes" and was organized by psarokokalo.

I have this fabulous book about ethnic jewellery (Ethnic Jewellery by John Mack, The Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1988), which is full of treasures from all over the world. One of the pictures shows shell jewellery from south eastern New Guinea, which were the principal items in the Kula ceremonial gift exchange.

The soulava necklace is made of many disks bored from the shell of the Spondylus Oyster, and I could easily see very similar structure being made out of modern plastic buttons. The Spondylus disks vary from pale brown to deep red, and I have used saturated brown buttons. For the ornamentation (which is done with shells of several species in the picture above) I have used one oyster shell and eight cockle shells, that I have collected here on the beach.

Buttons : Goofies

What are goofies ? or novelties ? or moderns ? or realistics ?
All different words for the same type of buttons, i.e. buttons in the shape of realistic items, such as hearts, cars, animals, etc. They are sometimes quite stunning and, therefore, popular collecting items !
Some of my own goofies; heart, turtle, fish, "E", bird, cat, horse, dog, car, leaf, hats, cars, leaf, heart.

Here some great goofies on Etsy:
1. Bear from KathieWeise
2. Robot from kittyrobot
3. Flowers from Lilley
4. Leaf from sarabeedesigns
5. Stones from StonehouseSupply
6. Stars from buttonzone
7. Owl from siennaorlando
8. Sheep from TinyArk
9. Sunflowers from forsythecompanystore
10. Black birds from buttonsbyrobin
11. House from BranchDesigns
12. Ninjas from MakeMesses

Challenge : Spring

The challenge of the European Street Team for this week is from palepink and is called "Spring".

Here where I live, the winter aconite is number two every February: snowdrops poke their little heads through the snow a week earlier. But with their intense yellow optimism, the winter aconites make the picture complete; they are the true forbodes of spring. I really love that bright yellow and green flower !

(pictures taken from Flickr: Claude@Munich and Buspass)
Inspired by this lovely flower, I made a brooch of one large vintage green button in the middle with lots of small yellow buttons sewn around it (with yellow embroidery floss). Everything is topped off with one lime green shank button and a green synthetic velvety fabric leaf.

Challenge : Combination of dissonant

Every week the European Street Team at Etsy organizes a challenge to make something with a special theme.
The theme this week is organized by Jane and was called "Combination of dissonant".

Plastic buttons versus feathers, artificial product versus nature: clear dissonants. But the result is not a dissonant at all; surprisingly these different elements fit together nicely into a smooth pattern of natural beauty.

Feathers: We find them alongside the tracks in the fields when walking the dog. We find them on the beach. We find them on the bottom of the parakeet cage at the vet's. Sometimes, we pluck them from the leftovers of an unfortunate bird that was caught by a hawk. Feathers are eery. Feathers are lofty. Feathers are magic, they consist mostly of air trapped in fairy-tale protein.
Plastic: We find it alongside the tracks in the fields, and so on -- but we don't like to see it there. It is a dissonant. But plastic can be turned into anything that the human mind can imagine, and then it becomes something constructive.
Dissonant: Plastic and Feathers -- Feathers and Plastic.

Buttons : The PhatSheep Handmade Button Swap 2

Remember the button swap I participated in a few weeks ago ? This was the Handmade Button Swap organized by PhatSheep. We had to handmake a coherent set of 6 buttons. I am amazed about the variation ! Fabric, fimo, linen, velvet, crochet, painted, embroidered, ceramics, felted etc. Have a look at all the entries (even more pictures here):


1. Gemma Grace: starfish shell embroidered buttons
2. jennypepper: Nuno felt buttons
3. incywincystitches: embroidered fabric buttons
4. Phatsheep Textiles: Fimo buttons and fabric buttons
5. Jacqui: linen embroidered buttons and fimo buttons
6. tiptoptoppersbyruth: fimo buttons with seed beads pressed in
7. dhop76: embroidered leaf buttons
8. pyewacket42: linen buttons with silk french knots embroidery
9. namolio: Knitted poppies with velvet covered buttons as the centre
10. jennyflowerblue: Fimo pearl effect buttons
11. noisette handmade: linen painted buttons
12. P8 Accessories & Button Art: ceramic casted and painted buttons