The Button Hoard

buttons
Originally uploaded by zavodk.

For years it felt like I searched for the right stash. Combing steamy summer time yards, porches and garages, dusky flea markets, church sales, searching and searching. I elbowed my way around the Portland Fabric Faire hoping upon hope that I was the lucky one who found that giant box under the table filled with a lifetime worth of buttons. I scanned the sales in the local paper every Wednesday my keen eye looking for that one sale where a sweet old lady just passed leaving behind her substantial button hoard as well as some key vintage kitchen items and if I am lucky some great old cotton fabrics. I searched those places in vain. I would come by buttons at sales, occassionally. Pretty blue ones, dainty pearls, all priced to break my yard sale bank. They were truly reasonable.... $1 button cards and the like, but I knew the deal was out there and I was on a hunt to find it.

I should have looked no further than my nearest and dearest neighbor.

Back in November, family friend and adopted grandmother Tiny, bestowed upon me a button hoard of great magnitude.

This hoard contains buttons from not only her private collection but those of my next door neighbor Judy's mother and another neighbor's Mother, a dear sweet lass from Ireland, and Tiny's sister-in-law Claire who passed last year. This is a collection of 4 different elderly ladies buttons. I almost wet my pants, really.



I haven't gone through them all yet. Its like a treasure sitting up in the studio waiting for me. There are some real beautys. Glass, wood, plastic, pearl, buttons dappled with patina, jeweled buttons, bone buttons....its a regular button galore!

I dipped into the button hoard for a friend last month. Searching for the perfect button to accompany a raw silk cuff that I made. I struck pay dirt finding one that complemented the shininess of the silk, but was worn enough with just a smidge of patina to give it a glamourous yet, bad ass kinda look....& it even went well with the recipients outfit! I am blessed.

My many thanks go out to Tiny for such a treasure. My hunger has been filled. Buttons Abound.