Monday, March 29, 2010

Challenge : The Button


I won the European Street Team Challenge from last week, organized by donauluft with the theme "find a complement among your european fellows" !!!!
This was my entry:

This Japanese inspired summer scarf is cut as the inner part of a snail-shell/cochlea form. These lime green flowers would be a very great food and hiding place for this green leaf insect brooch from BlueTerracotta.


Now, I am the challenge queen for this week and the theme will be, on frequent & enthousiastic request, ................

"The Button"

There must be at least one button in your creation, and it must have a prominent place ! It can be something actually used as a button, but it can also be a real button not used as a button but as deco, etc.
I would be very pleased too if you could write a bit about the button(s) you
use.


The challenge will end on Monday the 5th of April at 21.00 German time in the evening ! Looking forward to see all your buttons !!!!

And here are the entries:

1. Cassie Little Garden Felt Brooch from swiedebie; The featuring button is a large bright green one recycled from Swee's daughters' cape jacket.


2. Can you feel the sea from viltalakim; Kim completed this felted picture with gorgous stone buttons.

3. THE BUTTON Ring from gr8jewellery: gr8 found a simple wooden button that needed a sparkling new life.


4. Bottle cap buttons from fluxplay: flux made 6 lovely blue buttons out of vintage and modern soda bottle caps.


5. Pink wrist warmers from sofiasobeide: sofia found some vintage bronze coloured buttons and used them to pep up these lovely wrist warmers.


6. Black and white button brooch from violasboutique: viola found a beautiful big black button and made it the centre-piece of this flower.


7. Linen blue flower bag from ikabags: ika used a lovely bone button as bag closure.


8. Wild Beauty from LaTouchables: La Touch used three buttons, two wooden toggles and a large buffalo horn one.


9. Ivory Flower Brooch from AngelPearls: Angel used a shiny, vintage mother-of-pearl button as heart of her white flower.


10. Mother of pearl eardangles from Donauluft: Donau made these earrings of 2 old mother of pearl buttons.


11. Elvis's blue suede shoes from DeerLola: Lola made the most cute shoes with square purple buttons for little Otis.


12. Lime and olive button cuff from ArtBeadwork: Bead made a delicious lime cuff with one large olive button as the striking centre-piece.


13. Button me around purse from LabSpace: Lab explored her orphan button box and designed a versatile button around bag.


14. Vintage provence magnets clothespins from LAccentNou: Accent made her own buttons to adorn these lovely magnet pegs.


15. Aurelia Leather Clutch from iragrant: ira made a clutch from lamb leather and adorned it with buttoned flowers.


16. Biggest button ever from Kreativlink: Kreativ made a journal that closes with a button of 12 cm !


17. The Button Lover Purse from StarBags; Star made a bag for button and nature lovers (isn't that everybody ?).


18. Lavender and cream corsage from ColoursandTextures: Colours made this lovely flower with a vintage scallop shell button in the centre.


19. Amsterdam button cuff from ZsBcreations: ZsB made Amsterdam house buttons from polymer and sewed them to a cuff made of an old shirt.


20. Victorian spring bracelet or necklace from kraplap (that's me :)): I made a bracelet / necklace from simple brown buttons.


21. Black, white and grey flower brooch from TheBroochBoutique: Brooch rummaged her mother's button collection and choose a small carved button for this flower.

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Now it's 21.00 o'clock German time; and the winner is ...............
ZsBcreations with the Amsterdam button cuff:


Congrats Zsuzsa !!!!!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Buttons : Wall Art


Just found this cool wall art from Pottery Barn. It consists of five hand-carved mango wood buttons that you can hang any way you please. These buttons are finished in shades ranging from natural to espresso. It's a set of 5 including one small mahogany and one small natural (15 cm diameter each); one medium espresso and one medium mahogany (22 cm diameter each); one large natural (28 cm diameter). Maybe hubby can make me something like this .....

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Etsy : socks, slippers & Euro week


Only a short blog post to show you how I got through the winter, with dark purple hand felted woollen slippers from ingermaaike and purple Norwegian thick cotton socks from Legyviel. That's how great it is to shop on etsy, especially with the European Street Team. Thank you both !

So have a look at all these great European creators, crafters and artists; this week is Euro week on Etsy, with lots of sales and surprises !!!!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Buttons : Art with a Big A



Surfing on the internet I found the most incredible button artist you can ever imagine. Her name is Ran Hwang and she is from Korea. Her enormous wall displays are beautiful scenes like flowered trees, Chinese vases or Birds that,
as you look closely, suddenly appear to be made entirely of pinned buttons.

Her art works have a subtle but dramatic look and I love it all. Better than to describe it I will let her talk by herself and show you some pictures of her work.
Ran Hwang says: "My immense wall installations are extremely time consuming and repetitive manual work. This is a form of meditative practice that helps me to find inner peace. Pins ure used to hold buttons onto the surface to form a silhouetted image. No adhesive is used so that buttons are free to stay and move, which implies the genetic human tendency to be irresolute. I use buttons, because they are common and ordinary, like the existence of human beings."




I would love to see her work in real, so I am gathering all the information I can get of her and her ART. If you ever see something from her, please take a picture for me. And if you ever read or hear something about her, please let me know.



Websites I used for this review:
Ran Hwang
Kashya Hildebrand, Zürich: Artists Represented - Ran Hwang
Buttons and Pins - Ran Hwang

Monday, March 8, 2010

Tidbits : Monday Moodboard


This Monday's moodboard is called "ethereal", don't know why but that's how I feel today....
For more monday moodboards see fleurfatale's blog.

1. artistsnature
2. OmniaCrafts
3. ArtMind
4. senayakin

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Buttons : achtmalacht


I am so happy to announce that my button creations are now for sale in a real, non-virtual, shop ! My friend Annette from PaperPower, who is one of the initiators, asked me kindly to be part of this adventure. This Saturday is the grand opening from achtmalacht (i.e. 8x8) in Eckernfoerde, Germany. When you happen to be in the area, come and have a look, and a glass of champagne.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites


Today my flickr favourites are about bubbles. It's really bubbling here today :)
For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. Sahara, felt collar, 2. Pulseira Max Bubbles / Max Bubbles Bracelet, 3. NC 0002.2010, 4. Untitled