Allie's Adornments

I live for this! Fresh, new, old stock antique buttons that are still on the card. Never used, many of these still have their original vibrant tint and need little or no cleaning. I've been lucky enough to find a button seller that has many different types of antique buttons in sets.

Multiples are wonderful to have on hand when designing jewelry pieces because they can be used in pairs for earrings, or larger groupings to establish a pattern for a bracelet or necklace.

Marked on the backs of the cards is the price for these 100 years ago, most sold for .07-.20 cents a piece. With so many different cards & types of buttons, I'm starting to feel like a haberdasher.

Paperweight buttons refer to glass buttons that resemble glass desk paperweights, only smaller. These were first made in Europe in the mid 1800's. Most have a base with a preformed design & a cap of clear glass that covers from the top to the base. Some glass blowers would make these by building on the wire shank, adding the design & then the clear glass all while working over a flame to fuse them into a single piece of glass.  Other glass blowers would insert the shank at the end of the process while the glass was still malleable & hot.

The buttons shown here all have wire loop shanks. While they look large, the biggest is 3/8", about the size of a pinkie fingernail, & the smalls are flirting with 1/4". They are darling but none are big enough to hold down a piece of paper as a desk paperweight might.
To view a bracelet with paperweight buttons, click here.

Yesterday these great French sporting buttons arrived from St. Alban, France.  The seller wrapped them in French postcards from Les Karellis, Savoie and Toulon, so I was able to have a small virtual trip as well.These buttons are all equestrian themed. These were originally parts of sets of buttons that adorned the coats of ladies or gentlemen that belonged to exclusive hunting and riding clubs. Giddy up!

A question that I am often asked, especially at craft shows, is "Where do you find these?" And to be honest , it's not the easiest question to answer. I hunt for the buttons, and get them from all over the world. Antique shops, button collectors, estate sales, and quilt shows; there isn't a day that goes by where I'm not looking for buttons somewhere.

I called this group of buttons, "The Mother Lode."  Sometimes I purchase a single button, other times, I'll buy them in large lots. Consisting of over 300 buttons, this was one of the largest groups of buttons I'd purchased together from an antiques dealer. This group had almost everything; perfume, picture, twinkle, mother-of-pearl, cut steel,  and pierced buttons.

This is the "after" photo. After dozens of hours and lots of elbow grease had been put into cleaning them up. I have used many of these, and sold most of the larger buttons after keeping one of each style. Selling the extras covered what I paid initially for this huge lot.  I list extra buttons frequently at http://www.OldeTymeNotions.Etsy.com

Not nearly as shiny or colorful, this is one of the "before" photos of this group of buttons.