Button Wednesday : Blauwe Knoop

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


"Blauwe Knoop" is the title for this Wednesday. It is Dutch for "Blue Button" like this giant one (from stellaloella).



In Dutch it has also another meaning. In Dutch you can be of the "blauwe knoop"; in that case you do not drink alcohol, out of principle. In the second half of the nineteenth century exuberant alcohol consumption was considered as a large problem. Not by the state, because the turnovers from the excise levy on spirits formed an important source of income for the government. The fight against alcohol was put up by citizens who found that "enough was enough". Their slogan was: "Ah father! No longer". Their sign was a blue button on the coat. The fight against alcohol abuse was a component of the social question, as it was called then; the fight against bad housing and poverty. Because the alcoholics drank their hole income in a few minutes. A couple of drinks on Saturday afternoon was already dramatic for the house keeping funds. Here a funny short film about it's history.



And then in 2004, a new blue button appeared. It is the mark for justified clothing. In the regular cotton cultivation many detrimental pesticides are used. Working conditions and payments are frequently bad. This applies also to the processing industry and many sewing workshops. Because there are so many parties involved, Western companies frequently hesitate to reorientate to a more durable treatment. In 2004, Solidaridad MADE-BY started to help them with this. MADE-BY develops durable production chains from raw material to end product. So the blue button on a garment tells you that the company is trying to be more durable.



And that's all I know about blue buttons .....

(Photo by annapurna356)



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 !!

Etsy : Earrings

This week's earrings are these beautiful Tit earrings by Nancy from NancyvdBoom on Etsy. Nancy is a great painter and a very lovely friend, which I met last year in Amsterdam. Next to her large tree paintings, she started to make art jewelry too. Because we have so many tits here around our house and I love to look at them, I asked Nancy if she could make me a Bluetit and a Great Tit. And now I am wearing real Nancy v.d. Boom oil paintings in my ears !!!

Look at some other pieces of Nancy's stunning jewelry line, in which her husband Cor now joined in making the beautiful metal settings:

Tidbits : Monday Moodboard

This Monday's moodboard is weird and beautiful.
For more monday moodboards see here.

1. staroftheeast
2. enchantedpond
3. TwoTreesBelgium
4. ArtMind

Hats : New Creations

I am pretty proud of my last two hat creations; experimented a bit with velvet and heavy wool felt. The turquoise velvet one was made for the European Street Team challenge of last week: AQUA. Especially the wool felt I love to work with; it feels thick and strong, does not fray and is lovely for making decorations like flowers and leaves. Got myself a lot more of this woollen felt,also a bit thinner which is a bit better for my sewing machine who had some difficulties with the thick magenta I used now.

Challenge : Starry Night (Van Gogh)

This week's theme for the European Street Team's challenge is inspired by Vincent van Gogh's painting "Starry Night" and was suggested by the previous challenge winner, Star of the East. She is collecting all the entries in her blog and they will also be published in the EST blog later on.

I made this Vincent's Starry Night Cuff. Beautiful small dark blue mother of pearl buttons are knotted together to form this matlike cuff. I took the backsides of the buttons for the outside of the cuff because that rough shell structure looks very much like oil paint. Golden coloured star shank buttons are embroidered on top of the cuff to make the night starry.

Buttons : I made my first buttons !

For the first time in my life I made my own buttons ! Quite an achievement for a button addict....

And for the first time I worked with fimo; it was quite difficult to get it smooth and my fingers had to work hard on it. But when they came out of the oven, I was thrilled. I had 2 colours, a dark and a light blue, and made a mix of those 2. First I made flat buttons with 2 holes, and then I made some shank buttons by putting some of the fimo on top of some old & ugly buttons. I like how they look now. Of course you can see some prints of my fingers, but I will improve that I hope......