Buttons

"I could see no reason why used tram tickets, bits of driftwood, buttons and old junk from attics and rubbish heaps should not serve well as materials for paintings; they suited the purpose just as well as factory-made paints... It is possible to cry out using bits of old rubbish, and that's what I did, gluing and nailing them together." - Kurt Schwitters

I've been thinking about all the stuff I've accumulated over the course of my adult years.  I do have the penchant for saving small trinkets, scraps of ribbon and pretty paper, old buttons and baubles.  When I'm tucking them away, I'm sure some day I'll find a use for them.  A couple of weeks ago, I rounded up the odd buttons that have been scattered among various boxes and drawers and decided to try and figure out what they could become.  I don't sew.  Some of them are really very pretty.  Looking at them I recalled what garments they either came off of (if I dispose of something I take the buttons off before I put it in the garbage) or what garment they came with as the extra button.  I thought about the obscenely expensive green maternity suit that I bought when I was expecting Jacob and about the beautiful black sweater I had which was fastened by a single rhinestone button.  Playing with the buttons, sorting them and trying them in various combinations gave me an idea.  The buttons are jewellery and might have new lives as bracelets and necklaces.

I called my sister Nancy and asked if she had any buttons she would like to contribute to my inventory.  She brought me three boxes.  Nancy is the keeper of the family buttons accumulated over the course of much of the last century by my grandmother, Aunt Nora and Aunt Sadie.  In one of the boxes Nan brought, was a collection of pearl buttons that had once been Aunt Sadie's.  Nancy made me promise that they would stay in the family if indeed they found their way into a new life as jewels.

For a couple of weeks, I've tried to make my button jewellery idea work.  Every attempt failed - until today.  Today my friend Dale came over for our semi-annual play day.  A couple of times a year, Dale and I spend a few hours doing crafts.  She teaches me something and I teach her something.  It's a good system.  Perhaps because it was such a fun time, with no expectations and full freedom to experiment without any pressure to produce, the pieces came together.  My button jewellery designs moved from concept to completion.  Aunt Sadie's pearl buttons are in a single bracelet.  It's quite lovely.  A button from my maternity suit is now one of several terrific buttons on an art-deco-style bracelet.  I have a couple of other pieces in progress, one a bracelet of variously coloured abalone shell buttons, the other a grouping of interesting brass buttons.  Unfortunately, I too soon lost the daylight and my old eyes no longer allow me to do the fine work in artificial light.  I will finish them in the morning before my client meeting.  It won't take me long.

I've really enjoyed this experiment.  I think I'm going to dig out some of the other trinkets and scraps I've held on to these many years and try to breathe new life and purpose into them too.