A Visit to the Showroom at The National Button Society Annual Convention in Denver

Yes, the National Button Society held its annual convention this year in Denver, Colorado.  Called Mining in Button Mountains, it was a week of informative workshops and fun, creative project classes, as well as the non-profit organization's annual meeting.  There was a button auction fund raiser, and the judging for button awards.  I wasn't able to attend the convention until Saturday, the last day, when I visited the showroom just so that I could take some photos and share them with you all!

Before I even entered the showroom, I was distracted by this child-sized swimming pool FULL of buttons to poke through!  At 20 for $1, they were irresistible.  (I bought 60!)

Eventually, I made it into the showroom itself.  The room was full of vendor tables -- they came from near and (mostly) far to sell their buttons.

Then, all along the back wall were the displays of button "trays" that had been entered and judged for the annual awards.  There were hundreds of them!

Here's a typical display of the button vendors: they have rows of crates, each of which holds many boards with buttons displayed on them.  The buttons are held onto the board with coated wire that goes through the button holes or shanks and secures them with a twist at the back.  They are grouped by the material they are made of, or by a theme such as "dogs" or "flowers".  Here are just a few of the ones for sale that I photographed:

The selection was just mouth-watering.  At one point I really and truly felt my heart going pitter-patter over some hand painted portait buttons, and a selection of enamels.  (The one I loved most of all was priced at $265.  One button.)

I shopped for about 2 hours and saved time at the end for admiring the hard work that went into all the marvelous button trays entered in the competition.  I took some photos of my favorites; above, I was enthralled by that pierced metalwork button, and the tiny portrait ones.  Actually -- I would take any one of the buttons on that tray -- wouldn't you?

 The black glass bird is trim, not an actual button.

 That dog in pearl is to die for!

 (swoon)

 I would dearly love to own this pink tray!

 I loved these Paris-themed trays!

So many to see, too many to photograph, and so much love and creativity going in to each display!

Which one is your favorite?  Please comment if you were also at the convention -- I want to know what you thought!