It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today I want to show you some of my favorite buttons; buttons made of tagua nuts, corozo nuts or Steinnuss in German (literally translated: stone nuts). They were very popular in the 1920s as ordinary clothing buttons, but also as little gems. Tagua nuts come from ivory palms, ivory-nut palms or tagua palms in South America; their scientific name Phytelephas means "plant elephant". This and the first two of the common names refer to the very hard white endosperm of their seeds (the tagua nuts), which resembles elephant ivory, both in color as in structure. That's why its material is also often called vegetable ivory. The nuts are as large as a small avocado, about 4-8 cm in diameter. When dried out, the nuts can be carved just like elephant ivory; they were used for beads, buttons, figurines, jewelry, bagpipes, chess pieces, netsukes, etc. And they can be dyed in all possible colors. The nuts came often to Europe as ballast on ships sailing back from America to Europe without cargo. Hamburg in Germany was, for example, a "tagua nut harbour" and the Steinnuss buttons were made in industries all over Germany. They were used on German military uniforms because of their durability.
(Pictures from LeeValley and ColombiArte)
I found some great pictures of some beautiful vintage tagua buttons; so here we go (all from VintageButtons.net).
However, the plastics took over from the tagua nuts after WWII, being cheaper to produce. But the funny thing is that the tagua nut buttons are back ! In the present time of ecosystems and environmental concerns, the tagua nuts are helping to save the elephants from extinction and the rainforests from deforestation. And it provides work to thousands of people in some poor parts of South America. So lots of eco-friendly modern fashion industries have started to work with tagua nut buttons again !
(Pictures from Nature Beads, Keetsa, and rave fabricare)
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 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a friend of a friend who likes strolling on flea markets, and when he heard of my button mania he decided to have a look around for buttons (which I did not know). Suddenly this friend of a friend sent me this huge button parcel ! I am so thrilled. Especially, the buttons on the cartons are splendid; they were sewn on by a German girl with the name Helga Meyer in 1965, when she was at a vocational school for seamstresses in southern Germany (the text is still readable). I give you lots of pictures !
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.
Button Wednesday today is a thank you to two lovely people I met on the internet and who sent me lots of great buttons. The first one is Sandra from zsazsazsu1963 on Etsy, who told her 87 year old aunt about Button Wednesday and then got two immense Quality Street boxes filled with buttons from her, who had always sewn her own clothes. Sandra sent me some treasures out of these boxes because there were so many and because she is such s sweet girl of course ! Thanks again deer Sandra for this lovely Belgian gift; maybe you saw some of your buttons already appearing in my new natural jewelry line.
The second sweet lady is Lynn from Pennsylvania USA who I met on FaceBook. Lynn collected lots of buttons from her mother and grandmother because she liked them, but got the idea that she was not going to do anything with them. So, she decided to pack them up and send them to a button artist and she choose me as the lucky girl. All the ones from her grandmother are probably 90 years old and the ones from her mother are from 1940 - 1960. There are some real gems in this huge packet of buttons. I show you here some of her grandma's ones in detail. Thank you again dear Lynn; you are the sweetest ! Some of your buttons are already used in my new rings.
!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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.
When we went to the GP last week, I discovered a new junk shop in his street, so I went immediately in and searched for buttons.... Found some lovely ones; dark glass with painted flowers, greenish glass flowers, clear glass flowers, a large mother of pearl one, a lovely green plastic one with long oval holes, old tarnished metal edelweiss ones, fake wood ones with metal edelweiss on it, a lovely wobbely old fashioned one, etc. So happy with my new finds !
I took the pictures above on the balcony just now and it was very very windy; one of the more airborne ones flew away in the brand-new gutter.... Hubby will recover that one when it does not storm anymore :)))
!!!!!!!!!! If you have something for The Button Wednesday, give Mister Linky your name and the link to your button post !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every week the European Street Team at Etsy organizes a challenge to make something with a special theme.
The theme this week is organized by MirthQuake and is called "My Home Town".
She writes: "Anything that inspires you thinking back to the old days. Good memories or even bad memories...melancholy or pure bliss... I would like to see a black and white picture of your hometown (anything, a house, a church, a garden, even a tree is ok) in the listing, either as a background for your item, or as part of your item (for instance with photography), or as a picture in your listing if you can't embed it in your item itself."
My Friesian grandparents (pake and beppe in the friesian language) lived in a small house at the border of a large forest; I loved to be there when I was a little girl. It smelled good (I still remember the smell), it played marvellous (lots of animals, flowers, water and trees), it felt good (protected, at home and cozy); in short, a real paradise for a little town-born girl. My grandparents are dead for already many many years now, but I still think of them and that paradise of a house. This summer, after 40 years, I went back to that house, and it was a big shock. Nothing of a paradise anymore; it was much smaller than I remembered and everything was broken, the roof, the windows, the land; all was a ruin. Hence, a true faded glory ! Although, my father told me it was also like that 40 years ago; he never saw it like a paradise.... And seeing the pictures of then and now, I have to confess he is right. So, that's what feeling happy and at home does to a kid, I think, it creates this fairy tale memory of the "good old time".
Well, the old house inspired me to make this "faded glory" necklace for our weekly challenge. This 3-chain necklace is made of old vintage metal and bone buttons woven together with an old rope, old metal chain links, an old key and other rusted metal findings. Available on P8 Button Art on Etsy.
