Button Floozies

These are some of my hand painted  buttons that went on Etsy yesterday  I started trying to get my  button painting back on track.  I had little trays of buttons all over in various stages of completion and I am just about done with these.  Some were unfinished, others needed fixing somehow, some needed to be just sealed, scanned or posted on . Etsy . By the end of the week all that needed to be done should be up.  It has been a big job and glad it is done.    In fact I'm at a point that I'm actually looking for ideas to paint that I haven't done before.  I have started some loons as well as both sunflowers and poppies (neither of which I have ever done)  A good many of my ideas come from requests or special orders.  If you have an idea I might be able to paint on a 1 1/8" MOP button ...leave a comment  and it might get you a button if I paint it.

I found another bag of buttons at the thrift store and "splurged" the $2.99 on them because I could see there were lots of my favorites -- mother of pearl and shell buttons!  But, there was more than that...  Some very nice steel and metal buttons, and, the ones on the far left are glass with embellished tops!  More glass, tied together -- I just love that!  A few pretty celluloid, composition, and bone buttons, too!  All of the ones that are the same, on the left, are painted glass!  The ones in the very front are so special: one clear glass with ruffled edges, and one that is enameled!  Such a treat! As always, a few extras in the mix: a belt buckle made from what I think is apple juice Bakelite, a little pin from a service group, and some wooden beads.  You just never know what you'll find in a bag of buttons!

Progress moving along on my spider bag but the initial roses   were too "pinky pink" so I redid them all in a more antique rose and added them..  It all looks rather disjointed now but the next step are lots of blues and purples which will bring it all together.  At the end will be some white sprays of flowers as accents. The very last step is the spiders... I started going through my old metal buttons looking for some that had floral images that I could put on the bag. I found this one about the size of a quarter.  When I was polishing it I noticed an engraving on the back.... extra superfine Scovills.  So I looked on Google and found that if it says Scovills/ extra superfine it would date it around 1827-1840 and it was probably a ladies coat button.  It is a two part button with a heavy shank.. It will definitely find a place on the bag.

Someone  read my button-painting tutorial and asked a question and blogger wouldn't give me her email so I couldn't answer.  But she persevered and reached me through Etsy .  Since the answer was going to be lengthy I thought I would post it here in case anyone is curious how I started or where I got buttons and what about those pesky holes.  Her question was: "When you use putty to plug the holes on the buttons do you take the putty out when you’re done? Which is more desirable?"  and "Where to buy buttons." I started painting buttons about 15 years ago and I did them to add to each round robin block  as a personal touch.  For a long time dear Susan Elliott kept urging me to paint and sell them... It took a while but I finally listened to her...  At that time a woman sold buttons on Ebay under the name Button Glutton.  She had bought a house that had an outbuilding that was packed with inventory from a turn-of-the-century-butto...

I love it when I find buttons like these, that have been carefully carded by a button lover!  bejeweled  summery  sparkly  shining  diminutive  green glass  black glass  red glass (plus a bit of plastic on the left...) dyed shell

These moments are rare for me, but yesterday when I was thrift shopping I noticed a carded button display in the glass cabinet at the thrift shop.  I really dislike having to ask them to open the cabinets as a rule, at thrift shops or anywhere else, but I was glad I did this time! Can you see where this cardboard is creased in the middle?  That's where it was folded and put into a plastic bag.  What I saw in the cabinet was actually only half of the button display, which I didn't find out until I purchased it for $3.79. What it lacks in beauty and presentation, I think, it makes up with charm!  I was initially attracted to it only for the shell buttons...  but when I got home I noticed the enameled ones, which made me very happy... as well as the additional quantity of pretty glass ones!  There are a lot of whistles (one holed buttons), too. The one int he middle with the two diamond shapes is my favorite, and I noticed there is also a small...

I went to a local button club's sale event Saturday, and will be posting some of the fun and pretty buttons I got there.  Here's the first: A plastic button of a button card! How fun is that?