It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today I show you the beautiful slate button art by Tom Stogdon. Tom was born in a London greengrocers family and started his sculpting career with fruit. He became frustrated with the ephemeral nature of fruit and also felt that people were not taking the work seriously and as a consequence started to explore other materials. He is now working with stone, metal, and sometimes plants, if there is no need for longevity. He writes: "Elements of the original construction process with fruit still have much significance in my work today. The pieces I make vary in size and stature, but each is made up of many smaller component parts, which are in turn wrestled into a larger containing space". Some of his smaller components are slate buttons, and that is how I found Tom's work. Have a look at his wonderful creations and imagine having your home and garden decorated by Tom's work; well you can always dream, isn't it ?
Buttons on Oak Slab
Sea Buttons in White Frame
Rolling Buttons
Counting table
Button circle
(pictures are from Tom Stogdon, Fashion Foie Gras, and Eves & Lewis Landscape Design, respectively)
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 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This Button Wednesday is about the button sculptures from Halina. Halina's father was a tailor and pattern maker, and the family came directly after the war to the USA when she was eight years old. Due to language barriers and finances, the family made most of its own basic clothing. Self-dependence and recycling are Halina's main drives in life. 
She loves buttons because they were her first real possessions and they came from her dad. They came in all shapes, sizes, and colors and she says she loves the sound of them when piled high or when falling from of her hands like a waterfall. 
She started with flat images, sewn onto clothes and bags, but it developed quickly in a wish to make it 3D. She experimented with a lot of materials to form the body of her sculptures; different battings, recycled plastic containers, glues, fabrics, scissors, tapes, and threads until she figured out what works best for her projects. And the result is stunning !! 
It's fantastic to see that she is using the same technique as I do with my own button art; she sews the buttons together like I do. A clear evidence that two people who live miles and miles apart and don't know of each other, will develop the same technique by using and studying the same material. The expression though is our own, and Halina's sculptures are one of a kind ! You can read a lovely interview with Halina by Halina's man Robert here. (All pictures are from Mel Mashman on Flickr.)
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 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This Button Wednesday is about "Bluffs". Bluffs is made by artist Tara Donovan. Tara is an artist from New York and her works feature found objects like buttons, shattered glass, fishing line, drinking straws, etc. She takes very simple objects and transforms them into something much more beautiful and complex. Bluffs is a sculpture piece completely made of simple buttons. Since the buttons are white, cream, and clear, it gives a very icy feel, like you have just stumbled upon a winter castle. Or it might be some spiraling coral, or crystals that have grown from the floor of a cave, or a mountain range carved into peaks. When light shines through it, it turns a dusky pink/mauve color. The varying densities within the piece make for an infinite scale of saturation of this color, which changes subtly with point of view. Here a lot of pictures to show you this wonderful art piece.
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. 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 love Flickr; there is so much to see, so I surf Flickr regularly to find great pics. It always boosts my creativity. Some weeks ago I found the Flickr page of Lauren Levy from Austin in Texas, and I was stunned. Lauren uses buttons, wire and other diminutive objects to create small, fetishistic sculptures of startling power. They often have garment shapes or animal forms. She strings shiny, coloured buttons on steel wires, and then knits them into sculptures. Because her works are intimate and intricate, requiring long periods of time to make, they show the emotional depth of her own personal experiences. While some of the works refer to tragic events, others are very playful. She says: "When I was small and visiting my great grandmother, I was rewarded for good behavior by being allowed to play in the button box. Buttons are for me the perfect medium for personifying the notions of loss, joy, grief, tenderness and consequent insanity of these extremes."
I let her work speak for itself here:
!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I was making my weekly mosaic for ArtMind, I found a picture of a huge red button sculpture. I liked it instantly ! so big and bright ! Did some research into outside button sculptures and found some really great ones. Here they are, starting with the red one from my mosaic.
1. button, button, who's got the button?, 2. Lorrie's BUTTON, 3. grand rapids 1, 4. Lorrie's ButtonHy Zelkowitz
Lorrie's Button, 1976
Painted fiberglass and urethane foam
Ah-Nab-Awen Park, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
A huge red button on a tilted axis. The center of the button is pierced with four large holes. The sculpture was designed for children to climb on and is installed in a playground area of the park.
1. Les oeuvres d'art publiques de la région de Granby et de la Montérégie, 2. MTLskyline on skyscrapercity*forums
Esther Lapointe
Bouton, 1977
Tufo stone and marble
Lorne Park, Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Canada
1. The Button sculpture on the Penn Campus, 2. Button Sculpture 2, 3. Cute as a button, 4. Claes Oldenburg ‘Split Button’, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaClaes Oldenberg and Coosje Van Bruggen
Split Button, 1981
cast in reinforced aluminum and painted
Blanche Levy Park, Philadelphia, PA, USA
The Split represents the river Schuylkill; it divides the button into four parts symbolic for Philadelphia’s original city quadrants designed by William Penn in 1683.
1. Downtown (4), 2. Thimble, 3. verabee.com, 4. Thimble & tattooStephen Cruise
Uniform Measure/Stack, 1997
bronze thimble and eight concrete buttons
northwest corner of Richmond Street and Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
This area used to be the centre of garment factories of Toronto. The statue reflects on the contributions of its workers and on the presence of 'touch' in the making of garments.
1. Art District, 2. Needle and button, 3. Me in the Fashion District, 4. Button HolesPentagram Architectural Services
Needle and Button, 1995
Seventh Avenue and 39th Street, New York, NY, USA
The octagonal kiosk, which is the Fashion District Information Center, incorporates the world's largest button leaning against the kiosk, held upright by a long steel needle. The 5 holes are making a stylized F, which is the logo for the fashion district, which you can see on top of the kiosk.
1. alvik on eFoto.lt, 2. SCANDINAVIANS & BALTICS, 3. SCANDINAVIANS & BALTICS, 4. SocialinėMechanika
Vytautas Narutis
Buttons, 2005
Vienybes aikste, Kaunas, Lithuania
The sculptor says: "A button is a symbol that accompanies us from childhood. A button connects two parts of clothes, the destinies of people, two cities (i.e. Vilnius and Kaunas)". (Many thanks to the Lithuanian members of the European Street Team on Etsy for all the information so far !)
Do you know more button statues, memorials or sculptures ???? Please let me know !
Buttons on Oak Slab
Sea Buttons in White Frame
Rolling Buttons
Counting table
Button circle
