The Jingle and Clinking of Button Jar Memories

This week's BlogFire Guild's theme is "Who in your family inspires you?" When no one popped into my mind I decided to go browse my shop to see who I could find.  Immediately I saw the influence of my childhood joy of playing with my Mom's and Grandmother's button jars.

Marie Antoinette (*need to take new photos*)- Mother of Pearl fishing lure, vintage buttons

Actually my Mom's was a cookie tin.  I used to spend hours dumping them on the floor, sorting them into colors and interrupting my Mom's sewing to ask where perhaps a particular blue bumpy plastic one had been used.  She made all my dresses and shorts and tops growing up, so it was also fun to hear that a button was from my Easter dress when I was six or a jumper when I was three.  My Dad's Navy and pilot uniform buttons stood out proudly from the more feminine mother of pearl and pastel colors. A side thought:  Beaders love to run their fingers through their beads.  It feels comforting.  Weird?  I think it goes back to that childhood memory of running our fingers through our Mother's or Grandmother's button jar.

I don't know what happened to those buttons, but I started my own button jar years ago, gradually adding more and sorting them into colors.  Remembering some really ornate and fancy ones my Grandmother had in hers, I started buying some steel-cut and pictoral buttons at button shows and on e-Bay.  The excuse I had was that I'd be making jewelry with them. 

Committing a button to a piece of jewelry is difficult for me, but what was even more difficult was letting a jewelry piece go out my door.  I've gotten better at it.  I may hang on to a new piece for awhile before listing it.  No need to worry though, if it's listed for sale in my shop I'm ready to let go. I'm just not going to let go of my memories, as they continually influence my work.

Filigree and Steel - Victorian steel-cut buttons with Czech crystals and Sterling Silver marcasite toggle clasp



Harvest Time 

I bet many of you have button jar memories and maybe even were lucky enough to inherit them.  I sometimes see a jar at an antique mall and wonder about the little girls who had their dresses made by their Mom's or if any are off of a long ago wedding dress or father's winter coat.



For the Love of a Dog Mourning Necklace (my personal collection)