(from The House In The Woods Inc., Eagle, Wisconsin)
This week's button story is about a very special and lovely American traditional women's folklore; the button string !
(from Off The Wall, Austin, Texas)In Victorian times, young women in the USA collected buttons and arranged them in lengths known as "button strings", "charm strings", "friendship strings" or "memory strings". The string begins with a large button, called a "touch button", and grew as friends and relatives donated buttons. Being given a button was considered good luck, as was stringing it.
Often button strings helped memorialize important life events, such as weddings, births, holidays, and awards. Glass buttons were the most popular. The strings were often stored carefully wrapped in tissue paper in a beautiful box. For many, the goal was to string 999 buttons because the 1000th button would be brought to her by her true love. Most button strings that survived, however, do not contain 1000 buttons ........
The stringing tradition went out of fashion around 1900.
(from deep fried kudzu, seen in State Archives in Montgomery)I also found a very beautiful modern version of a button string in the blog of madelinetosh:
Based on:
Keep Homestead Museum; Button Archive
Victorian Charm Strings by Diana Epstein and Millicent Safro
Charming Charm Strings by Scribbit
The Button Lover's Book (Creative Machine Arts Series) by Marilyn V. Green
OK, I will try to post more often on my blog. But I find it every time so difficult to find something interesting, or better something that could interest others. But I will do my best from now on ! So try me....
I was on an art market in Schleswig in February; it was in an old cloister. The building was gorgeous; it had beautiful corners, corridors and wall paintings. And the stands were spread out over the whole building. A great atmosphere ! Most of us, including me, did not sell much because this was the first time this market was organized and not many people did know about it. But it was pretty interesting and we had a lot of fun. At one moment, two older ladies came up to me and asked me if I also repaired old bags. I said that I would always do my best if I could, and they vanished again. One hour later they were there again and they opened a small paper bag with what they said was an old tobacco bag. It belonged to the grandmother of one of the ladies who got it as a wedding gift. That sounded a bit strange to me to give a tobacco pouch to a bride, so when they opened the bag, I did not see a tobacco bag, but the most gorgeous little money bag ! In english it is called a miser bag.
This type of little Victorian money bag has a curious shape and a curious name. Long and narrow, with single small pouches at either end (one for coins and one for paper money), there is a narrower neck in the middle with a slit, and two rings gathering it closed. They were often crocheted or knitted, often with tiny beads, they were carried in the hand or pinned within the garment or slung over the waistband with one pouch exposed. They are called miser bags because of the restricted way you got access to your money; you had to slide the ring away from the pouch and then get two fingers inside the slit opening; "if you were a miser you pulled out only one coin at a time".
I knew about these type of money bags, but I had never seen them in real life, and there it was laying in my hands. The most gorgous turquoise colour with black and silver beads. The fringe of one of the pouches was damaged, but that was all; the bag itself was in a tip top condition ! Not difficult for me to decide if I could repair this jewel of a bag; I took it home and repaired the fringes; they came out a bit shorter than at the other pouch, because some of the beads were missing, and I could nowhere find such tiny beads (much smaller as the normal sized rocailles or seed beads). I had to use a special very thin needle that I inherited from my mum to string these beads. The result was beautiful, and the lady was so happy, and I was happy that I was asked to do this. Can you imagine ?
Just before it left my home, I took pictures; difficult because of the silver, but you get an idea (click on the pictures to see the miser bag larger):
