Button Wednesday : Lederhosen Buttons

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I wrote on Monday, I am in a Bavarian mood :) And I will explain the reason for this later this week .... 

So, my Button Wednesday is also in a Bavarian mood. Did you know there exist special Lederhosen buttons ? The buttons on Lederhosen are to close the front flap that forms the closure of the Lederhosen and to hold the suspenders. They are typically sewn on, not by means of thread, but by means of a small leather strap. Therefore these buttons have 2 elongated holes for the leather straps to go through and a bar in between.

(German Wear)

They can be made of plastic, plain or to imitate deer antler buttons (like the ones above), of buffalo horn, or of real deer antler.

(Stoffcorner)

(Licht Imports)

(www.knopf-shop.com)

(Stoffcorner)

And here these lovely buttons in full action: 

(Amazon)

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 in the comments so that everybody can enjoy it !!

Button Wednesday : Oktoberfest

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.



Last week the Oktoberfest in Germany ended, so I thought I will do a Button Wednesday around the Oktoberfest. As an unknowing and straightforward Dutchie I do this in October and not in September, as I never understood why the Oktoberfest was held in September..... On Wikipedia I read that the first Oktoberfest occurred in Munich, on October 12, 1810; so they had it right once :)
I digged into my buttons and made a selection of real Bavarian specimens, starting with the Dachshund.

The first three buttons are from metal, showing a man in traditional outfit with a goat (maybe more Swiss than Bavarian....), a rucksack and a ram's head. They are followed by two real horn buttons, a lederhosen and one with Edelweiss. The last button in that row is a typical Bavarian glass heart. Then three fake horn ones, with Edelweiss, flowers and stag antlers. Can it go more kitschy ?


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

Buttons : Antler Buttons

(from Fischer-Antics in Germany)

In many cultures lots of early buttons were made from antler (the "horns" of deer). Antler buttons were often manufactured by individuals working at home with simple tools. They are especially very beautiful and typical for the european Alp-countries. After the "Trachten-boom" in the 70s and 80s only a few manufacturers still make antler buttons by hand in the Alps.

(from Fischer-Antics in Germany)
Most of the antlers are collected by hunters in southern Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic. The stags throw their antlers each February and March; so they are not killed for their antlers, but their antlers are found left behind in the forest.

(from Inntaler Hirschhornknopf-Fabrikation)
Everything of the antlers is used. First the antlers are cut lengthwise into flat strips, then disks are cut as close to each other as possible to get as much buttons as possible; 1 kg antler produces about 100 buttons. The disks are then beaten out of the antler strips and the button holes are drilled. Finally they are polished and sometimes also carved. The antler tops are formed into toggle buttons and the rest, dust and chips, becomes biological fertilizer for gardeners.

(from Stephanie Hackstein. Buttons. History and Production.)
Every antler button is unique because every antler is unique. That makes these buttons so beautiful. There are lots of imitations made out of plastic on the market; they are all identical and they all have a snow white backside.

A: real antler buttons; B: plastic imitation buttons (from my own collection)
Some examples of beautiful handmade antler buttons I found on the internet:


(1 and 2 from Hirsch-Hornschnitzer & Hornschmuck-Erzeugung, 3 from Knopfparadies, 4 from rosenhexe31 on Ebay, 5 from ideenreichHandarbeitsbedarf on DaWanda, 6 from buchfink987 on Ebay and 7 from bokkerer on Ebay)

Based on:
Stephanie Hackstein. Buttons. History and Production. Markstein Verlag, Filderstadt 2007. ISBN 978-3-935129-40-4
Grüß Gott aus dem Raum Rosenheim: "Das Imitat ist unser größter Feind", Inntaler Hirschhornknopf-Fabrikation in der dritten Generation.