Button Floozies

Ephemera, paper, and snippets of the past have been my passion for many years.  Here are a few vintage trade cards and dear friend shared with me.  It opened up a whole new passion or should I say obsession? ~Sewing and Kittens of course!  Feel free to use these in your art projects.  You can find more at Lilac Lane Livery . ~Enjoy

I like Pinterest, but have to admit that I do not keep up with it very well.  Last week I thought I should put in an appearance, so went searching  for button pics to put on my Brilliant Buttons board.  Coming across this photo... ...I was intrigued enough to follow the path to the website.   Lisa Kokin artist   I was amazed at what I found. She is a button artist, book artist, sewing artist, and a teacher/writer. Here is a close-up of one of her works: Curious as to what it is? Follow the link above and click on "Button Works" and then "Button Works One."

I am piggybacking Autena's recent post regarding  The Pearl Button Capital of the World. My friend Tara and I had the pleasure and opportunity in our research of pearl button manufacturing to privately meet with the Pearl Button Museum. Please click here for my blog article.  If you enjoy pearl buttons and the history of them, may I suggest reading Shell Games by Jeffrey S. Copeland.  I am not sure if The Pearl Button Museum carries this book in their gift shop; however, it is carried on Amazon.com .    The Muscatine Journal's review of Shell Games can be found here .  Thanks Autena for sharing your recent post and interest in The Pearl Button Capital of the World! Your post sparked me to recall how much I enjoyed my museum research visit and the book Shell Games.  

I came across this site the other day as I was researching some button cards to post in my Etsy shop.  It was so interesting, I immediately thought of sharing my find with the Button Floozies! Muscatine History and Industry Center It bills itself as the Home of the Pearl Button Museum. How intriguing! It is located in Muscatine, Iowa, of all places--population  approximately 21,000. When I looked up the town (I'm big on research, can you tell?), I found out, via Wikipedia, that it is the only city in the U.S. with that name. Here's another interesting fact: It turns out that the shell buttons were produced so prodigiously there because of the Mississippi River mussels. They were thick and hearty and could withstand the machine cutting.   The buttons were produced there from 1905 to around the early 1960s. Click the above link and you can find out why they eventually ceased production. Here is the Pearl Button Queen of 1946!

You may have known her as Bunty, Vintage Bunty, Bunty Barmcakes, or simply Barbara.  Perhaps you saw her work on the pages of Somerset magazines, swapped with her, or took an online class with her.  However you knew her, or whatever you called her, she was an Artist, Blogger, Button Floozie...and Friend. photo by Barbara, courtesy of her blog  Vintage Bunty I first "met" Barbara online when she visited my blog during a large blogging event called One World, One Heart in 2010.  The name of the event was prophetic, as it put me in touch a member of my "tribe" that lived all the way across the pond in Oxford, England.  She responded to the first comment I left on her blog with these words: I wanted to say thank you for leaving such a nice comment and  I hope we will get to know each other through the blog world. And so we did.  Barbara and I loved so many of the same things: buttons, lace, mixed media art, vintage fabrics...and creating.  ...

Someday I want to have one of these to use for button storage: Antique dental cabinet Until the time that I (a) find one and (b) can afford it, I will have to make do with this: It's a jewelry cabinet I bought at an antique store last month; it's vintage, certainly not antique.  I can't wait to change out the hardware, which I think is horribly ugly! I have just finished filling it with some of my favorite buttons -- the ones I'd like to keep, vs. the supply I keep in jars to use in my crafts.  Here's part of it: In the top section, I keep the faux jewel and paste plastic buttons in an old watch box; in the compartment on the right, my most bling-y buttons, and then some that aren't so blingy but are still my favorites. This divided box holds my glass buttons; besides these, I have a couple of large "trays" full of different colored and black glass buttons that I mounted for display. I have a lot  more glass buttons than I th...

Di is the winner of Gerry's generous prize -- the beautiful hand painted button! Congratulations, Di!  And thanks to everyone who played along! But especially, thank you to Gerry for giving us all something to dream about for Valentine's Day!

February 6 is the last day to enter the Valentine Button giveaway!  ( See below for details! ) I wasn't clear in the original post , but you may enter once between now and 11:59 pm MST on February 6, 2013 by leaving a comment there . Winner will be announced on February 7!