Button Floozies

Since I've written a novel entitled The Button Collector, at some point I figured out that it wouldn't be such a bad idea for me to learn a little bit about button collecting.  This became especially apparent when people started contacting me with their button collecting questions! At first I did some research through books and the internet, but eventually I was invited to a real live meeting of a real live button club.  Woo Hoo!  Of course, I went. The particular meeting I attended was with the Western North Carolina Button Club. It started with our hostess wowing us with her collection of 19th-Century Mandarin hat buttons, but I was also quite impressed by many other buttons the members passed around--the Victorian button nails used to hang pictures, the mourning buttons made of hair, the smugglers' buttons  . . . and many more I can't remember. Mandarin hat buttons I also learned about the state and national competitions the club members had entered ove...

Here it is the end of June already! Summer just started.  I was cleaning my art studio. When I came across a big tin of buttons.  I took the lid off the tin and spent a half hour looking  at what was inside. While looking at these buttons,  I decided which ones to share.  Here are my picks for you on this warm summer  evening in June: A Vintage Carved Heavy Plastic Coat Button (Bakelite?) All the summer picks   A Close-up of the button picks  A Close-up of the button picks Vintage Patent Numbered on back of 2 of the large molded buttons  A vintage blue-gray thin celluloid button  A vintage butterscotch celluloid covered metal button  Three large plastic pearly flat buttons Four plastic textured faux copper buttons June is almost over....so, some evening pull out your tin of buttons and share them with others.  Happy Summer Button Floozies!

Look at the fun that arrived in my mailbox last week: These were a gift from my niece -- look how she addressed the package! My favorites from the bunch. I love it that when people I love see buttons, they think of me! Happy June to you!

I chose buttons from my collection that would complement an Abstract Painting used as a background. The art is by me, Sue Marrazzo, artist, and button collector. I really wanted to show-off the buttons and make them the "STAR." In shooting photos for this post...I realized how each button is like ART. Each has a style, design, color, shape, and is composed of different materials. I am featuring: wooden, metal, resin, acrylic and glass buttons.  Take a look at these ARTFUL BUTTONS... The button collection shown  with art by Sue Marrazzo, ISAP, NCS. www.suemarrazzo.blogspot.com

I'm at it again -- creating with buttons -- and this time enjoying the soft look of mother-of-pearl and shell buttons in vintage glass. Have you ever altered a bottle?  I just finished my first one: it's for a  Bird Song 4  swap.  It's a raffle drawing-style swap so who ends up with it is anyone's guess! I decided to stick with a low-color palette this time and it was an adventure from start to finish. First I had to find an old bottle.  Bottles are not something (believe it or not) I collect, so finding just the right one was a challenge.  I finally found a true vintage one at a street market a few weeks ago. I chose this one because if has a rather flat front that I knew would take well to altering, as well as some interest in the ribbing on the reverse, above. The hardest part for me was figuring out a stopper or cork for the bottle.  I actually bought some glass bottle stoppers online from an Etsy vintage seller but neither fit i...

Have you ever picked up a button and wondered who it used to belong to?  Or where it has been?  Or how it came to be in the place you found it?   That's the idea behind an interactive project I call Flash Fiction, Button Style .  People send me a picture of a button, and I write a flash fiction story about the button and the person who once wore it.  Flash fiction is a relatively new genre of writing that emphasizes brevity.  I like to think of it as a bridge between poetry and fiction--every word is chosen carefully, the overall rhythm has heightened importance, and the final sense of the writing carries more weight than its individual components.  For Flash Fiction, Button Style , each story is 250 words or less.  To accentuate the genre's penchant for suddenness and spontaneity, I also limit the time spent on each story to one hour or less.  While the pieces may lack perfection and polish, I hope their immediacy gives them freshness ...

I spent all week at Brimfield and saw some fabulous buttons!! I bought the ones on the lower right.  The mother of pearl.   The others are just a part of the clear glass buttons that I have collected.  I do not yet know  why I am drawn to clear glass buttons but  I am sure one day I will have an awakening and know exactly want to do with them!!  They are hard to use as they don't show up very well on a quilt.  Any ideas???