Button Wednesday : New "Old" Acquisitions

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog. It would be great if you could do the same; make your Wednesday a button day too. Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here via Mister Linky at the end of this post.


When we went to the GP last week, I discovered a new junk shop in his street, so I went immediately in and searched for buttons.... Found some lovely ones; dark glass with painted flowers, greenish glass flowers, clear glass flowers, a large mother of pearl one, a lovely green plastic one with long oval holes, old tarnished metal edelweiss ones, fake wood ones with metal edelweiss on it, a lovely wobbely old fashioned one, etc. So happy with my new finds !
I took the pictures above on the balcony just now and it was very very windy; one of the more airborne ones flew away in the brand-new gutter.... Hubby will recover that one when it does not storm anymore :)))



!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Challenge : Morocco

The challenge of the European Street Team for these two weeks is from creationsbyeve and is called "Morocco".

Source: Fibula [Morocco] (1981.5.2) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The first week I had no idea what to make; then I decided to look at my postcards with traditional costumes from Morocco. And the inspiration bubbled in my head. There is a very striking piece of jewelry, called a fibula, that is part of the Moroccan Berber costume. Fibulae were decorative, symbolic, status indicating, and functional. They were used as clasps to keep capes, mantles and other garments in place. Fibulae from the Islamic period consist of two triangular endpieces, which are pinned into the clothing, and a chain that connects them. The inverted triangle represents the female form.

Source: Fisher, Angela. Africa Adorned. London: Collins, 1984

So, I started to make a fibula from buttons. I made two triangles from heavy brass buttons by sewing the buttons together with strong brown yarn. They are connected to a golden-coloured chain at the bottom and two large golden-coloured metal rings at the top. At the back of each triangle, a golden-coloured brooch pin is sewn. It's for sale in my P8 Button Art and Accessories shop on Etsy.

Button Wednesday : Text on Metals

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog. It would be great if you could do the same; make your Wednesday a button day too. Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here via Mister Linky at the end of this post.


I have quite some metal buttons in my collection, most of them not in the best condition, but if they have text I certainly keep them in. They are all very ordinary buttons, nothing special, but I love it when I see texts on buttons. I have buttons with brand names, buttons with text including the word "Paris", buttons only "For Gentleman", buttons with funny old fashioned German texts (like Deutsche Arbeit, Solide Neuheit, etc.), army buttons, jeans buttons, buttons with unreadable texts, buttons with only texts at the back, etc. etc. .....

Here some of the nicest; I hope you can read them. It is difficult to take decent pics from shiny metal buttons :)

And some military buttons at the end:



!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buttons : Metal

(from my own collection)
Buttons can be made from lots of metals; copper, steel, brass, pewter, silver, aluminium, etc. Most metal buttons are stamped in dies (like coins); the more expensive ones were engraved or chased by hand.

(from my own collection)
Looking at the history of buttons, metal is the most common material used. They were probably first made in the 13th or 14th century from less-precious metals. Later jewellers began making buttons in silver and gold. During the renaissance, golden buttons were the rage of european royalty, often decorated with jewels.

(from Annette Wilzbach und Martina Wilzbach-Wald. Knopf Design)
In the 18th century large copper buttons with geometric and other non-pictorial designs were the fashion in men’s clothes.

(from Nancy Fink and Maryalice Ditzler. Buttons: A Collectors Guide)
During the Victorian area, metal buttons with pictures of people, animals, flowers and other objects were in fashion.

(from Annette Wilzbach und Martina Wilzbach-Wald. Knopf Design)
Another type that was popular for women’s clothing in the 19th century were the brilliant shiny cut steel buttons, made of many tiny faceted steel pieces.

(from Annette Wilzbach und Martina Wilzbach-Wald. Knopf Design)
Coins were often used for making buttons. They are often found in traditional folk costumes all over the world.

(from Annette Wilzbach und Martina Wilzbach-Wald. Knopf Design)
Brass and pewter were the most used metals for mass produced buttons, and also for uniform buttons. I found this funny story about soldiers in the beginning of the 19th century: their buttons were of the same material as their bullets, so many soldiers carried molds in which they, after melting their buttons, could cast their buttons into bullets if they ran out of the latter ones.

(from Nancy Fink and Maryalice Ditzler. Buttons: A Collectors Guide)
I did a search for metal buttons on Etsy, and was surprised to find some really great specimen:

1. antique metal and fabric from AmandaShellnut
2. Sterling silver from MarieCristine
3. Copper from SteppingStones
4. gunmetal from ILoveVintagePatterns
5. pewter from thebeadlady2004
6. silver from melissajlee
7. antique metal and plastic from jen1
8. sterling silver from NinaGibsonDesigns
9. pewter from treasurecast
10. pewter from mamacitabeadworks
11. silver from UraniumCafe
12. pewter from Roosterick

I would love to try making my own metal buttons; after some surfing I found the following how-to's:
Bottle Cap Buttons (from Sparkle Jars)
How to Make Bottle-Cap Buttons for Knit Slippers (from Lee Meredith on craftstylish)
DIY Coin Buttons (from Chrisjob)

Based on:
Marilyn V. Green. The Button Lover's Book (Creative Machine Arts Series). Chilton Book Co, 1991. ISBN 978-0801980107
Annette Wilzbach und Martina Wilzbach-Wald. Knopf Design. Deutscher Fachverlag, 1990. ISBN 3-87150-315-0
Nancy Fink and Maryalice Ditzler. Buttons: A Collectors Guide. Quintet Publishing, 1993. ISBN 1-56138-215-9

Challenge : Africa

Every week the European Street Team at Etsy organizes a challenge to make something with a special theme.
The theme last week was organized by creationsbyeve and was called "Africa".
She writes: "I would like to see creations inspired by this wonderful continent" and she gave us lots of beautiful pictures in her blog as inspiration.


I thought pretty long about this challenge because I did not want to make the "obvious". After scanning through my buttons, I found some beautiful ivory-white ones with a kind of brown traditional pattern. I remembered that I had some lovely wooden beads and some wooden sticks, so decided to combine those with the buttons and ordinary cotton rope. To make it a hybrid between traditional and modern, I made a very long necklace that you can wear in lots of coils around your neck (i.e. the traditional African jewelry) or in one coil with two long loose tails. It's for sale on Etsy !