Button Love

Button Jewelry

I love finishing my jewelry creations with button closures, or using buttons as decorative elements in a jewelry design.  On today’s Art Jewelry Elements blog post I shared my vintage glass button collection, as well as my collection of Thai cloisonné buttons and mother of pearl buttons.  There are also multiple examples of jewelry that employs the use of buttons and resources for finding handmade buttons.  You can check it out here:  Button, Button, Who’s Got The Button.

Meanwhile, here are a few of my designs that feature buttons:

This woven bracelet features a beautiful green vintage glass button from Germany.

Zigzag Zing Bracelet

This necklace also has a German vintage glass button closure, with a loop made of soft, round leather cord.

Blue Sky & Sunshine Necklace

This fun bracelet is made of intricately decorated handmade ceramic cubes and it closes with a button and seed bead loop.

Singing a Happy Tune bracelet

This rustic necklace is chock-a-block full of artisan components.  It features a horn and metal button closure.

Rustic Raku necklace

Although Christmas is still 4 months away, I’ll share this last bracelet with you anyway.  It’s hand-woven in Christmas colors and has a pretty gold button closure with a cut-out star in the center.

Holiday Garland bracelet

So, now you can head on over to Art Jewelry Elements if you’d like to see some great button jewelry from other designers.

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry – ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry – Etsy 

 

Button Swap Reveal

The Swap

I love buttons and so I am excited to be participating in Michelle Mach‘s Button Swap.  As I explained on Tuesday, Michelle, the former editor of Beading Daily, paired all the button lovers up.  We exchanged buttons and today we reveal what we made with our new buttons. For more details you can read “New Buttons”.

My partner, Stephanie LaRosa sent me this stunning castle button.  When I saw the open-work at the top of the button I immediately knew that I wanted to use  the openings at the top  to string the necklace.  Although I wasn’t entirely sure how,  I figured that I could use  the shank in the back to attach sterling silver dangles.  I named this necklace:  Castles in the Sky.

I selected two lampwork (handmade glass) beads from Beads and Botanicals to set the color theme for the whole necklace.  These organically shaped, lampwork glass beads have fine silver tracings over sea-foam green, turquoise and  swirls of cranberry  and amber.  To highlight these gorgeous beads I placed a beautiful sterling silver bead cap at the base of each bead  and added a sterling silver lentil-shaped bead at the top.

The remainder of the necklace includes lovely carved jade beads, aventurine and glass.  Visual interest is added with parts of the necklace designed with a single strand of beads and parts of the necklace displaying clusters of three strands.

Castles in the Sky and it is now available in my ArtFire studio.

Blog Hop & Giveaway

Itching to see more great button creations?  Here are the links to all the other artisans who are participating the button exchange.

And, as an added bonus:  Michelle Mach  is having a giveaway!  Here’s how it works:  if readers comment on any (or all) blogs, they can win a set of buttons.  The full rules are on Michelle’s  blog, but basically, each comment on a different blog gets you one entry.  So if you comment on all posts, that would be 25 entries!  But if you comment 25 times on my blog, that only counts as one entry.  The giveaway is open to everyone.

Have fun visiting these blogs and discovering all the cool things that people  made with their buttons.
1. Cat – Boo Beads

2. Cindy – Sweet Bead Studio

3. Cory – Art with Moxie

4. Cyndi – Beading Arts

5. Dita – Alankarshilpa

6. Donna, Marti, and Michelle – Beads & Books

7. Erin – Treasures Found

8. Hope – Crafty Hope

9. Inca – Zerenity Design

10. Katrine – Army of Sock Monsters

11. Krista – French Elegant Jewelry

12. Kristie – Artisan Clay

13. Linda D. – Lutka and Co.

14. Linda L. – Linda’s Bead Blog  ✿You are here!✿
15. Lody – Lody’s Beadworks

16. Lori – Pretty Things

17. Loretta – Loretta’s Boutique

18. Malin – Beading by Malin de Koning

19. Mary – MK’s Creative Musings

20. Maryanne – Zingala’s Workshop

21. Melinda – Melinda Orr Metal & Clay Jewelry Designs

22. Saskia – Perlendistel

23. Shannon – For My Sweet Daughter

24. Shirley – Beads and Bread

25. Stephanie – Confessions of a Bead Hoader

New Buttons!

Button Swap

Some of you know that I enjoy making bracelets with button and loop closures.  My recent giveaway bracelet included a closure with a vintage glass button from Germany.

Michelle Mach is hosting  a Button Swap, which I eagerly signed up for.  Here’s  Michelle’s description of how the button exchange works:

1. Choose three buttons for your partner.
2. Make at least one project with at least one of your button(s).  Your project does not need to be jewelry—feel free to make other accessories, clothing, home decor, or anything else you can think of.
3. Blog about your project and include links to all the other people in the button swap on the reveal day April 21, 2011.

Michelle paired me with Stephanie LaRosa.

Buttons From Stephanie

These are the buttons I received from Stephanie.  The first one is a vintage plastic shank-style button.

I love this silver-tone metal button!  The openings above the castle will allow me to use it as a pendant.  Then I plan to use the shank in back to create dangles that will hang below the button/pendant.  That’s all I’m sayin’ for now.  You’ll have to come back for the Reveal on Thursday, April 21st to see the completed necklace!

I was so excited to receive this third button!  It is a handmade ceramic button from Jennifer Heyman of Jangles. I’d like to make it into a bracelet, with this button doing double duty as the closure and the focal.

Buttons For Stephanie

Here are the buttons I sent to Stephanie.  I can hardly wait to see what she creates with them!  This fantastic Thai cloisonné button was purchased years ago in an amazing little import shop near my parent’s home.  I bought a whole bunch of these, in many colors.

This yellow button was also purchased near my parent’s house, but at a bead shop.  The bead store owner had bought out all the vintage glass buttons from a defunct factory in Germany.  The buttons were in a huge barrel and I spent hours, over the years, pawing through and picking out my favorites!  Unfortunately this bead shop no longer exists.

This button is handcrafted by Gita Maria.  I bought a package of these a while ago and this reminds me to get them out and start designing with them.  The teal enamel, in two colors, is so luscious and the freshwater pearl really glams it up.  Just love this button!

Please come back and visit on Thursday to see what I created with the buttons Stephanie gave me and to get links to all the other participants!

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ How have you used buttons?  Jewelry, fabrics, cards, other crafts?Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ