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:

Buttons : Mother of Pearl

(from my own collection)

There were quite some old-fashioned white mother of pearl shirt buttons in my grandma's button box; they always fascinate me. They have a nice cold solid touch, a beautiful shiny and iridescent appearance and often a very interesting rough backside, they are all different and they are heavier than plastic buttons. I learned that there are actually two types of mother of pearl buttons; those made from freshwater mussel shells and those made from ocean shells, with the latter having more brilliance. Round blanks are cut from the washed shells, polished and drilled.

Button fabrication (from Stephanie Hackstein. Buttons. History and Production)
Freshwater mother of pearl buttons were made from 1892 to the 1960s along the Mississippi River in the USA. Because at the end of the 19th century, the ocean shell buttons were very popular but expensive, a German immigrant button maker started to create buttons from the freshwater shells. It was a great success; a huge clam button industry was the result. Almost every man, woman and child along the Mississippi River was working somewhere in the button industry, families camped along the shores, catching, cleaning, drilling, polishing, carding, etc. It is said that the smell was really aweful in those areas. Finally they could not compete anymore with the cheaper and more durable plastic buttons, and the freshwater mother of pearl button industry died out.

(from Iowa Pathways; The Pearl Button Story)
Beautiful ocean mother of pearl buttons were made in the 18th and 19th century, often carved, engraphed, dyed, embellished with jewels etc. They were made in France, Germany and the UK, but the shells came from the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Panama, Egypt, etc. Those first two countries are still today's main ocean shell button suppliers.

(from The Keep Homestead Museum, Monson MA)
The most expensive shell is the white macassar from the East Indies, and the most pupular ones are probably the abalone with its striking colours and the smoked black Tahiti shell, but buttons were also made from cowries, helmet shells, pinna shells and conches.

(1. abalone from annkelliott on flickr, 2 white macassar from Miyoshi, 3 pinna from wildsingapore, 4 helmet from c70iang on flickr, 5 black Tahiti from Southern Paua Ltd., 6 tiger cowrie from pieceoflace on Flickr, 7 conch from Debi123 on Flickr, and 8. yellow sand shell from Freshwater Mussels of the Upper Mississippi River System; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)

Based on:
Marilyn V. Green. The Button Lover's Book (Creative Machine Arts Series). Chilton Book Co, 1991. ISBN 978-0801980107
Muscatine Pearl Button Museum
Stephanie Hackstein. Buttons. History and Production. Markstein Verlag, Filderstadt 2007. ISBN 978-3-935129-40-4
The Keep Homestead Museum, Monson, MA

Challenge : Native Tribes

This European Street Team's weekly challenge was called "Native Tribes" and was organized by psarokokalo.

I have this fabulous book about ethnic jewellery (Ethnic Jewellery by John Mack, The Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1988), which is full of treasures from all over the world. One of the pictures shows shell jewellery from south eastern New Guinea, which were the principal items in the Kula ceremonial gift exchange.

The soulava necklace is made of many disks bored from the shell of the Spondylus Oyster, and I could easily see very similar structure being made out of modern plastic buttons. The Spondylus disks vary from pale brown to deep red, and I have used saturated brown buttons. For the ornamentation (which is done with shells of several species in the picture above) I have used one oyster shell and eight cockle shells, that I have collected here on the beach.

Buttons : Button Blankets

Haida button blanket decorated with a human figure (ca. 1900); wool, dentalium shells, abalone shell, pearl buttons (from Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation)
A few years ago I found one of the most spectacular button art creations I had ever seen by surfing on the internet. I am talking about the North American Button Blankets. I fell immediately in love with this kind of button art !


Haida button blanket with a double-headed Eagle (ca. 1900); wool, dentalium shells, abalone shell, pearl buttons (Photo from Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation)
From around 1800, Pacific Northwest Coast Indian tribes (like the Haida, Tsimshian, Tlingit, Nisga'a and others) often traded furs for woolen blankets from maritime european traders and later the Hudson's Bay company. Rather than sleeping equipment, the blankets were made into robes for ceremonial purposes; they were worn over the shoulders like capes.


First Nations people in button blankets at Quatsino Sound (Ben W. Leeson, 19--) from Vancouver Historical Society

Why were they decorated with buttons ? One legend tells that a member of the Kwagiutl tribe saw once a Pearly King and liked what he saw. Another legend tells it was inspired by the white pearl buttons on the uniform of a British sailor. Truth is that early pictures show that the blankets were first decorated with feathers and abalone shells. These were eventually replaced by mother of pearl buttons, obtained from traders and sailors' uniforms, and were much easier to use. Most blankets are made of dark blue duffle with red flannel appliqué outlined with pearl buttons. The central crest typically portrayed a symbol of the wearer's family heritage. Symbols found are the frog, raven, whale, thunderbird etc.


Tlingit button blanket with killer whale (1891-1898); wool, pearl buttons (from The Burke Museum of National History and Culture)
Traditionally, these robes were worn during dance ceremonies. The dancer would move displaying the shiny patterns of the shell buttons to the audience. The community would know the dancer's family clan and its historial status just by the design on the robe. The robes were handed down from generation to generation. After 1880 the Indians were discouraged by the governments to hold their traditional ceremonies and not many button blankets were made anymore. Around 1950 a revival of the button blanket occurred. New button blankets are made, and classes in button work are offered. The button blanket has now become the most popular piece of contemporary feast attire. Today, buttons are sometimes used to fill entire zones of the design elements and even the whole field of the background.


Tlingit button blanket with frog (1920s); wool, pearl buttons (from The Burke Museum of National History and Culture)
A modern re-invention of
the button blanket concept by
Coho Creations:

Based on:
Wikipedia
Clarissa Hudson Studio
The Button Lover's Book (Creative Machine Arts Series) by Marilyn V. Green
Make a Button Blanket

New button blanket (from Shawl Lady dot Com)

Challenge : Summer

This week's EST (European Street Team on Etsy) challenge is: "summer" ! You can see the entries appearing on Nanouke's blogpost.

For me summer means lots of sun, beach and shells; I love to stroll on the beach and collect all kinds of shells. So I decided to do something with it for this challenge. I combined them with gorgeous mother of pearl buttons - also made from shells - and made this necklace out of it: