Fabulous Buttons

by Sherri Stokey

 I often use buttons in my jewelry.  In pieces like this multiple strand macrame necklace, the button (by Shelley Graham Turner) functions as both a closure and focal piece.  If you're putting this much emphasis on a button, you want it to be fabulous!  Handmade buttons like the ones below can add that special touch.

Porcelain sun button: Joan Miller, Two hole ceramic flower and owl buttons: Beadfreaky, 
Single hole ceramics: Marsha Neal, Metal clay butterfly button: Lesley Watt, 
Glass flowers: Jodie Marshall, Two hole glass buttons: Chris Haussler

If you don't happen to have a stash of art buttons on hand, don't despair!  You can do some enhancement and you don't have to be crazy talented.  Really!  Break out your paints or patinas or gilders paste - whatever you have on hand - and get busy.  

See that plain button in my hand?  It's covered in a very bland fabric.  I found a couple of them.  Very ho-hum.  I took some stamps and paint and added color and design in just a couple of minutes.

The fabric buttons are the two larger ones in the back  The others are some metal buttons I found that had great shapes and textures but no color.  A little Vintaj patina took care of that.  It actually took me longer to find my patinas than it did to do either of these little projects.  

If you're a little more adventurous, you might try some of the different paint products out there.  I had a ball playing with iron paint and rust activator.  Just look how this plain plastic button is transformed:

 Yes, I rusted the die, too.  I actually rusted a Barrel O' Monkeys monkey and all sorts of other stuff because it was just so darned much fun to play with, but I digress.  

I have one more super easy trick for you, if you want to make your own buttons:  glue on shanks.

These super handy little guys are just the ticket for turning almost any small item with a flat back into a button.  Wouldn't a sea glass button be nice?  Or one of the cabochons you have laying around?  Use a good adhesive like E6000 and go crazy!

My point in all of this is that you don't have to settle for boring run-of-the-mill buttons; in fact, you shouldn't settle.

In jewelry design, the difference between a so-so piece and a spectacular piece can be just one or two little details.  Details like that special button, whether you get it from an artist or make your own.

... in the details

offering bowl - mjd 2014

-----

the air of winter 

may be biting, but in its

sting i feel alive. 

-----

my work over time has evolved into simpler things. my focus is upon solid craftsmanship and defining details. even my writing this year (because i felt like i was losing focus somehow) is being combined with some haiku writing - where the choices all matter - you only have 17 total syllables to work with. 

but in our work, this too is true. there are things you will always need - findings, texture, metal, beads or other materials. they are defining. 

bracelet bar - mjd 2015

-----

as i am me and

you are thee, there must be peace

for the sake of we. 

-----

there are days where components are my focus. they provide opportunities for practicing what i find to be important - creating texture, attention to details, attainment of satisfying patina, even what i choose to clean the pieces up with (sandpaper, steel wool, brass brush, nail shaping block, etc.). and figuring out if the addition of something really does add, or if it detracts and was just fun as an exercise in trying something new. 

this has taken me years - 

it's important - as you work, you find out what makes your work yours. there is no way to really know at the beginning, it takes time and mistakes and victories to find out. it takes listening to your heart and being attentive to what makes it sing. you can successfully execute a design, but is it something you want to do again or reflects your aesthetic? 

what are details that matter to you? what ones do you feel are key to your work? 

wishing you all a year filled with what you need - i think i speak for many when i say that 2014 was a bit of a brutal one. let's hope for something a bit gentler.