Appreciation for Buttons

Appreciation for Buttons

I'm in the middle of a magnificent streak of finding just the right buttons for each project. In celebration thereof, I re-organized my button boxes (plural, as in at least one more than is really necessary). The prompt for the re-org was a gentle reminder that there's a pair of brown corduroy pants in this house that are totally done - except for buttons for the fly. They've been that way for over a year. Gah!

When I opened the big box of buttons to seek out the appropriate buttons for the pants, I realized two things - 1. the box was way too full to allow easy digging through the contents without buttons sloshing over the sides, and 2. I have two moon cake tins from Hong Kong that are the perfect size to each hold half the collection - one for lights, the other for darks.

Appreciation for Buttons

During the sorting process, I was reminded that button hunting has been really, really good to me. I once found a huge mason jar full of buttons at Goodwill that happened to have all sorts of vintage glass beauties in it. Another time, I found a tin full of mother-of-pearl buttons.

The most fun button hunting was courtesy of a business trip last spring to Paris. Upon landing and dropping my stuff off at the hotel, I had two hours before the flea market closed. Sellers were already closing up shop when I got there, but my frantic hunting yielded some gorgeous lace and linen, glass paper weights, coral specimens, and what I think are vintage French naval buttons.

Appreciation for Buttons

I have learned the hard way that it's a good idea to keep rhinestone buttons in their own bag or box - I've had a few lose stones from being josted by other buttons.

Oh, Frannson recently did a post about sorting her favorite buttons and putting them in frames for display. For general button appreciation, I also recommend the excellent Button Candy blog.

So what about you? If you display your buttons (pics, please!), or have any great stories about your button collection, please leave a comment.  

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