It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did some garden cleaning this week, because the weather is so nice. Had to scream every two minutes, because of the large amount of spiders .... Yep autumn is spiders. I have no idea why I scream when I see one and why I am afraid; I can handle most animals, but spiders.... brrrr. So irrational too ! Must be something very deeply rooted. So, this Button Wednesday, some scary spider buttons to tell myself that fear for spuders is nonsense.
1. leeettle spider button, 2. Trick or Treat Halloween Buttons, 3. hämähäkkinappi - button with spider, 4. Halloween spider button brooch pin Jewelry, 5. spooky buttons, 6. momshoo- itsy bitsy spider poofy badge, 7. Halloween Acrylic Buttons..Spiders, 8. Spider and Web Buttons, 9. Happy Haunting Handmade Buttons
I make no spider buttons myself, but button spiders .....
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 !!
It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
picture by styleandcultureblog
This Button Wednesday is about fashion designer Patrick Kelly. As a teenager I began collecting pictures of fashion designs from magazines and glued them all in many scrap books, which I still have :) One of those books was dedicated to buttons (and yes, the button disease started very early with me...). When I looked into that scrap book last week, I saw the pictures of Patrick Kelly's famous button dresses and thought I have to show them to you and tell you a bit about Patrick Kelly.
picture by mrpeacockstyle
I found out that The Brooklyn Museum had a Patrick Kelly Retrospective in 2004. I shortened their introduction a bit and here it is:
In the 1980s the young African American fashion designer Patrick Kelly took Paris by storm, becoming the first American member of the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter (the governing body of the prestigious French ready-to-wear industry). A native of Mississippi, Patrick Kelly was influenced during his early years by the creativity and fashion sense of his female relatives, who often added embellishments to simple store-bought garments, as well as by the fashion magazines his grandmother brought home from the white household where she worked as a domestic. As a young adult, Kelly moved to Atlanta, where he sold recycled clothes and worked without pay as a window dresser at the Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Boutique. He later lived in New York, where he attended Parsons School of Design. It was in Paris, during the mid- to late 1980s that Kelly found his greatest success. He began by selling dresses on the street and working as a costumer for the nightclub Le Palais. His flamboyant garments became soon popular, and he started to make collections in 1985. Such well-known stores as Henri Bendel, Bloomingdale’s, and Bergdorf Goodman carried his Paris designs, and celebrities Cicely Tyson, Bette Davis, Grace Jones, and Isabella Rosellini were among his clients. Sadly he died from AIDS in 1990 at the age of 35.
Some of Kelly’s most memorable garments incorporated masses of multicolored buttons. Rightly, you can call him the fashion king of buttons.
I also found a great interview with Patrick Kelly on the net; it gives a good insight in his character and his career. You can see it here.
He did not only made button dresses, he made everything with buttons, like these gloces, and his giant button brooches.
(last four pictures by 1stdibs)
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 !!
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 !
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 ArtThe 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.
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.
There were so many buttons on the fair in Amsterdam last Sunday, that I could not withstand it (next to all the non-button goodies I also bought ::)). I bought a gorgeous handmade button by Anastasia from LAccentNou as a brooch, and got a beautiful button necklace from Swee of swiedebie. Have a look at their lovely creations, also the non-button ones !!
!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!
