guest post – finding buttons!

Posted on 20. Feb, 2009 by admin in craft

I get a lot of comments and e-mails asking me about where I find all the great buttons I use in my bouquets and projects. To answer your questions, I asked my mom, who works so hard to help me find buttons, to write a guest post and talk about our sources and the thrill of the hunt.

Let’s face it.
The secret to Princess Lasertron’s flowers are the BUTTONS!
She always put just the perfect button on each and every flower.

But WHERE do those buttons come from?

My main job is to keep Megan supplied with unique, colorful, vintage buttons. And a good button is hard to find!

Our buttons are from antique stores in the Midwest and Florida.
They are from internet stores specializing in vintage notions.
They are from friends who lovingly drop them off at my home.
They are from other countries our friends and family visit, including Russia and Germany.

Antique stores can have buttons in a huge bucket and priced by the scoop, or separated in small bags by color or style. I’ve gotten them in jars…and I admit, I sometimes buy the buttons JUST for the jar!

I’ve also come across buttons that are sewed on cards in an artistic fashion. These are usually very expensive and very old.

And, as Megan’s mom, I know what she wants. I’m picky. SHE’S even pickier!
The buttons have to be clean, not broken, and vintage.
Old buttons have a story and they love getting a new life as a flower! New buttons are too plain, too shiny, too new.

We separate them into the ROYGBIV color spectrum. (RedOrangeYellowGreenBlueIndigoViolet).
We clean the dirty ones…remove threads…..and just admire them.
Some of them are too hard to use. They are too beautiful.
We want to save it.
Hoard it.
Keep it.
And, we do. But eventually, we are ready to let them go to a new home…to their new story.

I can stand for hours over a basket of buttons in a store, looking at each and every one.
I usually walk to the check out desk with huge handfuls of tiny bags of colorful buttons.

I can hear the clerks whispering when I walk away in search of more.
“What does she DO with all those?”
They always ask when I’m paying for them.
“My daughter makes beautiful flowers out of vintage buttons and felt”.
They either look at me with a blank stare, or smile and ask to see one.
I’m usually WEARING a pin, and I carry a photo of them in my purse, and we always have her cards.
I have the Bride’s Magazine page torn out in my bag.

“I LOVE that”, they say. I smile.