Button Monday

Today's button Monday celebrates the beauties from the deep, the shell button.  Whether you know them as Mother of Pearl (MOP), Abalone, Pearls...they're all beautiful.  Some are intricately carved, some plain, some shiny white, others smoky grey, and yet others have that amazing iridescence that makes us see green, and pink in that plain white button. 

A carved beauty in a "whistle" shape.

 

One of my favorites, a shank-backed intricately carved lovely next to a highly iridescent piece.

This one is amazing in person. 

So detailed for something so small, and with a beautiful pink iridescence against the dark grey shell.

The mother of pearls are some of my favorite to work with.  This is a button bouquet I made back in 2008.  I had happened upon a button jar that was filled with the most amazing shell buttons I had ever seen and worked many of those buttons into this piece.  (click on the pics to see them a little larger)  I'll tell ya, if I hadn't made this for such a sweet person, it would have been really hard to let it go.

Many of the shell buttons we covet today came from clams harvested from the Mississippi river.  The same river that runs right through my town.  In my search for information about these "hometown" buttons, I found a website that you might enjoy.

Karipearls has some great information about the buttons created in her town in Iowa.

 http://www.karipearls.com/pearl-buttons.html

She had a chance to tour an old button factory, left as it had been when it closed its doors 50 years ago.  What an adventure!  Who among us wouldn't love to do that?  You can read about it here:

Button Factory Tour: http://www.karipearls.com/pearl-button-factory-tour.html

Happy Monday!

Wordless Wedneday

New Brooches

I've been playing with a new concept for brooches and I'm hooked.
The hubby and I have been making wood buttons and I noticed that some of the birch pieces we had cut had decayed between the bark and the wood, just enough that I was able to pop off the outer ring of bark.  I took these rings, sanded them and waxed them, then fitted them with a piece of wool felt that I made by wet-felting.  Some I've sewn little details in, others I've left alone.

I'll be putting these in my Etsy shop sometime later today.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Button Monday

Today I'm going to share some little antique buttons that I adore.  Many of these little guys are called picture buttons and date from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.  Some have, or had, fabric seated behind the "picture" onto which I'm sure the fashionable ladies dabbed their favorite perfumes.  I think these are especially cool just because the designs are so intricate for something so small.  These are about 1/2" across.

These are all in my "keep" bin.

This blue one still has some fabric.

Butterfly

This one is amazing.  It's a castle with a maiden sitting on a bridge.  (click the photo to see it a little bigger)

An Interview With Marchi Wierson of MarchiMadeIt

I am constantly impressed with Marchi Wierson's ability turn a handful of wool into unique and unexpected pieces of wearable art.  I think I first noticed her work on flickr and was amazed by her big, bold necklaces.  I had just begun working with wool and seeing her designs opened my eyes to the potential of fiber.  When I got to know Marchi a bit more and understand her choice of medium, I was even more impressed.

Tell me about you:

Hi. I'm marchi wierson. I live in Portland, Oregon where it seems everyone is an artist, crafts person, or a DIY fan. There is an inventive spirit here in Portland that I like.

What do you make?

I make jewelry with a focus on wool and textiles. I am motivated by the idea that how jewelry is made contributes to its beauty. So for example, some jewelry looks beautiful, but may have had a heavy environmental or unfortunate social impact on its way to being a finished ornamental object; I think that this factors into its desirability in the end. I want to make things with a light footprint. I want my jewelry to be beautiful in its creation and in the finished product. My favorite material is wool. It can be sculpted into many forms. I am still discovering the range of potential in wool. I also like to work with old buttons and vintage or found objects.

Is there a particular theme in your work?

I think my work is natural modern, with fresh ideas and a bit of surprise. People often ask me about my jewelry when I wear it. They think it's made from stone, or bone, or they just don't know. I had a blue felted necklace that a friend thought was lapis lazuli. It's fun. People I don't know stop me to ask me about some piece I am wearing even as I am walking down the street.

Where do you find inspiration?

I see inspiration everywhere. I find my challenge is to stay focused on my work and where it is going, to do the next thing in a string of things that need to be done rather than be lead by inspiration. Most things I do are a slow process, and the next step reveals itself because of the steps before it. I try to stay in my own voice. Maybe I follow my muse more than inspiration.

What do you love about what you do?

I love that I want to do it every day, I get out of bed and I want to make things. I love the result, I get to wear it or share it. I love that it can make people feel happy.

Tell me about a favorite piece that you've made:

I think I can favor ideas more than pieces. But hmmm, I really can't choose.

What do you do when you're not creating?

I enjoy being outside in fresh air, walking. I like to play with my camera. I like a good dinner party, with a few friends, delicious food, and conversation. Oh and I could spend hours at Powell's bookstore looking at books.

A favorite quote, a good recipe, a funny story?

I have a fun recommendation. I recently bought a cheese kit as a gift for a friend from Urbancheesecraft.  It was brilliant. My friend made delicious cheese and I helped eat it. He thought it was fun and talked about it with his friends. If you like cheese, and like DIY, try making cheese. By the way, I have no relationship with Urbancheesecraft, I am just a big fan. And you can buy the elements to make cheese without buying from them, but they make it so easy to get started.

How can people find you?

I can be found at my blog - http://marchiwierson.blogspot.com/
and my Etsy shop: http://marchimadeit.etsy.com/

I welcome questions and comments from visitors, so come by and say hi!

Is there anything else you would like people to know about you that I haven't asked?

I just want to say thank you Lisa for including me on your blog. I am a big fan of your work and of your blog. You have a kindness that comes through your writing and crafts which makes people feel good. So, thank you Lisa.
 

My pleasure, Marchi.

Wordless Wednesday

Button Monday

Tiny glass slippers - shank button

I've been diving in the vintage button piles again.  I'm trying to thin the herd a bit so I've been pulling some aside to sell in my destash shop, some in a pile to craft with, and some in a pile to keep.  I'm *trying* to keep the "keep" pile small, but it's so hard when there are so many awesome old buttons out there. 

Glass buttons - art deco, china stencils, and more

What is it about buttons?  It must be our inner magpies that tell us these tiny utilitarian artworks are treasures.  Yet I wonder how many of us cut buttons off of our clothes anymore as our grandmothers and great-grandmothers did.  How many buttons jars of history will our children inherit?  I keep a jar of new buttons that have been cut from our clothing that have headed to the cleaning rag bin.  It is separate from my unforgivably massive pile of vintage buttons and I have to say that buttons today just aren't as special and lovely as the old ones.  Perhaps in the future when our great great grandchildren are using hologram buttons to hold on their space suits they'll look back on our canning jars of buttons and think they're pretty special.  Maybe.

Glass buttons - fruit! and more

So I thought that I would post a few pictures on Mondays of some of the buttons from my bins for all of you button people out there.  (and I know you're out there)  If I know the history, I'll share it.  If you know the history, I'd LOVE it if you would share it.   In the meantime, enjoy!

Clear glass buttons

Abalone - mother of pearl

Perhaps celluloid and the green may be bakelite

This one is beautiful in person - metal 2 piece with inset glass bits

Happy Monday!

Rooted Remains

I just finished a new nature scene I've been working on.  The seeds of which were no doubt planted by my walk in the woods this past weekend.  My muse seems to hang out amongst the moss and mushrooms. 

This is wool, needlefelted around a base constructed of felted sweater wool.  No glue was used. 

If I were wee, I would sit on this stump and curl up under its roots.  I would. 

Wishing you all a happy weekend.  May you all find a mossy place to sit, if even for a little while. 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Fighting Cabin Fever

The weather was lovely this morning with temps hovering around 20, perfect woods-walking weather.  I roused my dog Sandy from her sleeping bag and headed out back towards the woods to try to shake some of this cabin fever that seems to have grabbed hold of me.  Sandy decided to head down a well-worn game trail, and feeling ready for a change in scenery, I followed.

The snow just off-trail is really deep, well above my knees in some places.  I tried to warn Sandy, but being a bulldog and all stubborn and everything, she ignored my warning.

After freeing herself (with a little help) and regaining her composure, we continued on.  We ended up going quite far, following different game trails until we were off our property and back in the state land.  I found the wet areas from which the cacaphony of frog choruses erupt each summer, a few high bush cranberry shrubs, and several deer "nests" where they had been bedding down under a giant pine. 

We wandered for a few hours, me stopping often to snap photos of lichens, Sandy whining at me to get moving.  It was a lovely wandering sort of day, and just what I needed.

For those of you that aren't able to get out and wander today, here are a few photos from the woods, just for you.

I found this particular lichen very inspiring.

I can't remember what these little things are called, but they look like deflated cranberries growing on the dead trees.

Near the end of our trip I stopped to look at some holes in a downed tree and noticed some teeeeeny fungus.  Can you see it?

By this time Sandy smelled home and was done with my lichen and mushroom foolishness.  The roof of our house was visible through the trees so she left me behind and headed to the warmth of her blanket.

 

I wasn't quite ready to head back yet so I lingered a while, enjoying the quiet.  I was happy to be lost in thought, looking at lichen, and walking winding trails.  I felt like I could have walked all day.  Do you ever feel like that?

I finally headed inside feeling a bit clearer, a little less restless, and a little more inspired.  I have a feeling you'll see some suggestions of this walk show up in my work soon.

Happy Saturday, everyone.