What's on your worktable Wednesday: Revisiting buttons

I decided to play along on What's On Your Worktable Wednesday or WOYWW this week which is hosted by Julia, one of the sweetest people ever. Her private e-mails to me were simply adorable and I knew I'd feel right at home participating. I've considered it for the past two weeks, but the timing was wrong. Since my tutorial has now been postponed until Friday, I had the chance to play. There are about a gazillion or so other players (OK, I exaggerated, it was only 80 last week), so please visit their work spaces when you have the time.

The idea of WOYWW is to show what's on your worktable each Wednesday morning, and since once again I'm featuring recycled materials (have I mentioned Earth Day is turning 40 this year? OK, have I mentioned it lately?), it is only fair that I have an eco-friendly project going on my worktable.



I recently wrote a review on Terry Taylor's book "Button Button." If you recall, I wasn't too impressed with the book. Most of the projects were "crafty," not up to the style I often associate with Terry Taylor. This was on my worktable a few days/weeks ago.

About the time I wrote the review about Taylor's book, I found this book on buttons at a different library. The Button Craft Book was written by Dawn Cusick (Sterling Publishing, 1995).

The book begins with various button collectors showing their favorite buttons.

Here are some examples, taken from pages 14 and 15. If the photos look a bit hard to see, so are the words, which are written ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS and gray, not black, text. Select quotes are in bold black letters.


The author had it really easy. All she had to do was collect projects and quotes. She didn't even have to edit anything, since all the words were quoted by whatever artist was featured on that page.


I enjoyed and was inspired by two projects in particular.


Pages 78 and 79 had broaches and jewelry I found fascinating. I was particularly taken by the jewelry on page 79 and got inspired by the projects on that page.


Can you possibly imagine how many buttons you would need to make the necklace displayed on the left in this picture? Each necklace (page 76) begins with a crocheted chain. There are around 350 buttons on the one shown on the left.


The other project that piqued my interest was the one displayed on the left, page 58 in the book. It was paper buttons. Layers of paper are soaked in a combination of beeswax and paraffin, removed and allowed to cool. To get rid of the raw, frayed edges, the artist held the buttons under a Bunsen burner.

Although the author only collected the projects, I enjoyed reading this book. The projects were much different from the craft book written by Terry Taylor. Not only did I learn how to make beautiful custom made buttons that were works of art on their own, I was also inspired by several lovely projects in the book. This also was on my worktable several days ago.

So where, you ask, is the post about what is on your worktable today?


While the ideas that swirled through my head from the above book were still fresh, I got out my buttons and decided to make a broach (or is it brooch?) or two of my own. After all, buttons are the ultimate recycled material. So that is what you see on my worktable this Wednesday morning.


While looking for watch faces, which I never found, I came across these mirrors, ravaged by the flood I had last year. I probably should have trashed them back then, but they were OK except for the fact they were badly pitted and scarred from sitting in water for several days. I had a total of four mirrors to play with. I began by auditioning my various clock hands to see which ones fit best.


Next I got out my buttons to see which ones looked the best with the hands I chose.


Before I glued anything in place (using E6000), I did a dry run. Every time I moved one button, they all shifted. This was really frustrating, so I decided to glue the hands and center button in place before I proceeded. That allowed me a bit more freedom to play with the designs.


Here are my finished pieces before the pin backs go on. The third, made solely from buttons, is still in the design phase. I really like how these turned out, but I will probably add some really tiny black buttons as filler to the broach on the right. I think it needs something more because there are too many open spaces. Overall, I was very happy with the outcome of this project, although I was limited by the color, style, and size of the buttons I had to play with. I hope (that's a big word) to use the other two mirrors as the backdrop for steampunk inspired pins. So that's what was on my worktable today and my first ever WOYWW post.

My blog pick of the day came by way of Chriss R, a fellow Tea Tuesday participant. I saw where she wished Chris of Bling-Kin-Eck, a frequent commenter on my blog, a happy birthday today. I got confused because it was already tomorrow in England (the UK) when I wished Chris a happy birthday. I thought I was late, but was right on time. It may be Chris's birthday, but she's got lots of presents for visitors to her blog in the form of stamping, color, stamping, shrines, stamping, tags, stamping, handmade cards, stamping, arches, stamping, and she's a member of Dress Up 2010, hosted by Margaret. BTW, did I mention she's a stamper? So if you've never been to her blog, go check out her art. If you know her art, go wish her a Happy Happy Birthday!