Button Wednesday : Painted Wood

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.

These beautiful vintage painted wood buttons inspired me to look for painted wood buttons on the net. The following buttons are only a few of what I found.

I love these wooden buttons from Russia by Peace Fleece; a beautiful modernization of Russian folk art.

And these fantastic buttons are by the master of all, Fiona MacNeil from Glasgow in Scotland.


Very rustic primitive ones from Pinta.

Gorgeous little birds by TheBackyardBear.


Stylish blue buttons by gumby58.




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

Monday Moodboard: Natural History

I tried to make some new photographs for my wooden button jewelry this weekend, and decided to go for a "natural history" look. I am not there yet, but here some inspiration from some of our European Street Team members on Etsy.

For more monday moodboards see fleurfatale's blog.

1. Elbenta
2. zsazsazsu1963
3. staroftheeast
4. annarubyking

And my own first test pictures:

Etsy : New Brooches & Industrial Sewing Machine

This week I made more pieces in my "double buttoned embroidered" jewelry line. But this time I used the small branches, so I made a type of toggle buttons. Embroidered them again with silk floss and a lovely button. I so like making these girly woodland pieces !

Most of the new creations are now in my Etsy shop: P8 Button Art, but there is more to come !

And I played the whole week with my industrial sewing machine, hubby bought it for me from an old man in Kiel who buys and repairs those monsters as his hobby. I had to get used to the speed of the machine and how to get it even, and learned a lot about threads, tension, and spooling. There's no tutorial handbook, so I had to find it out for myself. And I am still very careful for my fingers because it is a real monster, it goes easily through 2cm (almost 1") thick leather like butter....
Here some pics of my new playmate:

Monday Moodboard: Wood

As you can see from my last blog post I am still very much in a "wood" mood. Therefore, today great wooden things from some of our European Street Team members on Etsy :))))

For more monday moodboards see fleurfatale's blog.

1. lessandmore

2. magalerie

3. lilarubyking

4. Utormeter

Etsy : New Jewelry Line

This week I made more pieces in my "double buttoned embroidered" jewelry line. I love the work; drawing the embroidery plan, drilling, sanding and oiling the wood, looking for a fitting button, choosing colours for the floss, and then the embroidery itself ! I am pretty happy making and seeing my new line. I made brooches, rings and pendant necklaces so far, but more ideas are continuously popping up.


Most of the new creations are now in my Etsy shop: P8 Button Art, but there is more to come !

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

Because of my new line of wood button jewelry, I am intrigued by wood at the moment !

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. burnt wood-face, 2. there are monsters in the wood, 3. Untitled, 4. godrevy log 1

Tidbits: Weihnachtsmarkt and new Brooches

picture taken before the fair started

This week was dominated by the alternative Christmas fair (last night) in Flensburg on the Danish-German border. It was in the Norderstrasse, close to the medieval Nordertor gate. The market was on two opposite sides of the Norderstrasse, at one side it was in the Danish Library (that's where I was) and at the other side was in an Art Gallery and its inner court. Despite the cold there were many people and the whole atmosphere was very cozy; lots of Xmas snacks and Glühwein, and very alternative street decoration with bunting made of rope with old shoes and paper snowflakes. Hubby, Peggy and I had a great evening, despite the fact I did not sell as much as I hoped I would :)

Das Nordertor, Flensburgs Wahrzeichen

It's a beautiful old street with a lot of athmosphere; I could not take pics of the Nordertor because it was too dark, but I found some great pics on the net. Next to the market was a lovely coffee, cocoa and tea house with great cakes, so everybody went there to warm up and have some drink and cake. The interior was so beautiful, it was like an exhibition of a tea and coffee can collector !

And I made a new collection of brooches this week. Obsessed with buttons, I finally decided to make my own ones. Gathered some lovely wood branches in my garden (something I have to do each year anyway for my wood stove) and let them dry for a couple of months. Sawed them into thin slices, and let them dry again for some months. And then the thrill of making the holes ! Not 2 or 4 holes, as ordinary buttons usually have, but much more holes I drilled into those slices. Then sanded and oiled (with organic corn oil), and there they were; the real special P8 buttons. So, what now to do with them ? Took them many times in my hands, they feel so yummy.... Why not combine them with some embroidery, which I so love to do ? And some of my special vintage buttons ? So far so good, and the new line of double buttoned embroidered P8 brooches was born. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did making them. Here some pics of the new brooches:


They are for sale in my Etsy P8 Button Art shop, and there are more to come in the coming days !

Etsy : Earrings

This week's earrings are from my EST friend lilarubyking, who makes the most beautiful earrings; I am always tempted when I come in her shop. I fell immediately in love with these citrus twig disk earrings when I saw them, so I had to buy them :) I wear them pretty often, because they are so light and fit with every possible outfit; again the power of nature !

Button Wednesday : Wood

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.


This week I want to show you the gorgeous wooden button I bought on the autumn market in the neighbour village. It has the most fantastic pattern and it is huge (6 cm diameter).

I always loved wooden buttons, so I gathered quite a few over the years. Some of the nicest in the mosaic above.




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

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 .....

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

Today I am still intrigued by the use of wood since I made my first wooden buttons.
For more flickr favourites see here.

1. Houten badpakken / Wooden bathing suits, 2. MHN00069 Zebrano Wood Ring with Silver Sleeve and set with One Appetite Cabochon, 3. Maria Cristina Belluci pencil jewelry 3, 4. Daughter and mother - Mursi Ethiopia

Tid Bits: Flickr Favourites

Inspired by the European Street Team challenge of last week for which I made wooden buttons (sawing, sanding, drilling & oiling) and made those into a necklace, my flickr favourites of today are all about wood.
For more flickr favourites see here.

1. Banksia Ring -1, 2. Stairway to Heaven , 3. Biscuit box angular jasmine leaf wooden necklace, 4. Wood Shawl Pin & Ring

And here's a picture of the wooden buttons and the necklace I made of it for the challenge:

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

The beauty of wood

My mosaic for Mitsy (aka ArtMind on Etsy) is this week dedicated to the beauty of wood. I could not resist to put some buttons in ! You can see this week's flickr mosaics on her blog

Buttons : Wood

Buttons are made from nearly every type of wood. The oldest buttons (from the 18th century) are made from hardwoods such as apple, boxwood or yew, and are very simple. In the 19th century wooden buttons became often very elaborate by carving, painting, burning, mixing with other materials like metals, shell etc. During World War II, wood was used for many buttons because all other materials like metal and plastic were scarce. It's often difficult to determine the kind of wood used in a button.
(from Piney Mountain Cottage)
I did a search on the internet for modern wooden buttons and found some great specimens:

1. Tree branch carved from Rodricano
2. Wood burned, coloured and lacquered from mrsjabberjaw
3. Tree branches with bark from Amberae
4. Exotic padauk from riverrim
5. Cipres from floresdelsur
6. Woodburned from Roosterick
7. Cut and water coloured from popcorntree
8. Ambrosia maple from Hendywood
9. Carved boxwood mermaid shank button from summer62
10. Olive from DianaLee95667
11. Mountain mahogany from South4th
12. Painted disks from stardogstudio
13. Woodburned from weiwenhaitun
14. Painted from Lamercerie
15. Tree branch from wookwoodworking
16. Pine from woodtoy

I would love to try making my own wooden buttons; after some surfing I found the following how-to's:
Pikku-Kettu Knits: A Button is Born (from tree branches)
Tottie Tomato & Noreen Crone-Findlay, Tottie Talks Crafts: Green Crafts - Twig buttons with spool knitted cords
Rosalind Porter, Piney Mountain Cottage: Make you own buttons (from tree branches)
Jeanne Paglio, eHow: How to make wooden buttons (from wood shapes)
Arts and Crafts: wooden buttons (from a dowel)

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 !

Challenge : Photograph

This week our European Street Team on Etsy was organised by antigoni, and she used a picture to inspire us:



This picture gave me an atmosphere of gold, wood, brown, green and flowers. I tried to combine all those feelings in the following brooch. The large button in the middle is brown and of wood, the buttons around that are golden, and the buttons on the outside are green. Together it forms a flower.