Button Art Mannequin is Done -or- What I Did Over Summer Vacation

It started out simply enough. I framed a few buttons several years ago. Button art. Done. Nope, I saw a piece in a window of a Richmond gallery that caught my eye. The seed was  planted. I had to make one of these myself. My mannequin was just waiting to be buttonized.

So the summer began with this obsession with buttons and glue. 

Recently, the piece was completed. I wasn't crazy about the colors, so decided, after naming it, to give it a little destructive look to sort of represent the downturn in the number of people who sew. Okay, that's a little dramatic, but you get my drift. I did a couple squirts with the paint and liked how it looked not completely painted. And so, out came the acrylic coating and it's done. I present to you, Buttons and BBs, a collection of buttons from the early 1950s to the present along with BBs filling some of the gaps. Read into that what you will.

There's a heart shaped button over the heart of the form. Awwww.

Closeup of the concrete paint. 

Here's the front. It's about 14" tall and used to be on a stand that added a few more inches. I like it better not on the stand. 

Both arms have the large yellow buttons. 

The top has a large pink button. I believe the large buttons were my mom's. 

You can see a big button on her rear. Accidental. I swear!

I wasn't sure where I was going with this when I started it, but there you have it. I like that I was able to use up some of my really old buttons. I did buy some 1/4" buttons for the smaller holes. I just didn't have enough! My summer project is now done. Sort of a scrap stitching project, don't you think?

Button art

I've always loved buttons. As a child, I would sit with my mother's button box and sort them by size, color, and sometimes, just loved to play with them and match them up. I spent hours doing this. I have her button box and three of my own. So, a few years back, I made this:

I made it from buttons from her button box. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I went to see my daughter finish the Monument 10K in Richmond, VA. Walking from the parking spot to the race finish line, I passed a small art gallery. In the window was this:

My brain started spinning. I could do this! I have small manikins and oodles of buttons, right? I started it the next day. I picked one of my mini dress forms, the biggest of the bunch and one with a stand. I cleaned up the felt finish and started going through buttons. I decided to keep dark colors and white out of the mix, focusing on red, green, blue, yellow, pink, purple, and orange. I do a few buttons a day and stare at it a lot, trying to decide what to do next. Here's the progress since April 13, 2013:

Front 

Side 

Side

Back

It's taking a lot longer than I expected and I was running short on buttons. I contacted a button collector friend of mine, and she sent me a jar of colorful ones. Now, I'm looking for very tiny buttons to help fill in some spaces. 

Because I can only do a few at a time in order for the glue to dry and the button not to shift, I suspect it will be another month or so before it's done. I will finish it with acrylic to keep it together and give it a washable coating. 

Who knows what I'll do next. With my sewing machine in the shop, I have to find something related to sewing, you know!

Beauty in a button

I thought I'd share this little piece with you. Again, it's not really sewing or stitching, but it is done with scraps.

I was lucky enough to get ownership of my mother's button box. In it are buttons that were bought, came with sweaters as an extra, came off of bathrobes or blouses, and various and sundry others. I remember as a young child sitting on the floor and playing with the buttons in the button tin. I have no clue how many hours I sorted, matched, and in general played with the bits of plastic, wood, and metal.

One day, I was looking through the button tin recently and decided I needed to do something with some of them. I found a frame that I wasn't using, took out the cardboard, and glued a nice piece of recycled denim on it. Then I scoured through the hundreds of buttons for just the right ones. I settled on 9 that may or may not go together, depending on your eye at the time you see it. I know the white one in the right upper corner is from a bathrobe. The others, I'm not sure. I used a fabric glue that dries clear to put the buttons on, and let it set overnight. The next day, I put the frame back together (including the glass cover) and voila - a nice piece for the sewing room.

Got a button box? A frame? Some denim or other background fabric? Sit down by yourself or with your kids and make a fun piece or a pair.

I'm not sure why, but I sure like the way it looks.

Oh no! Hexies. And oh my! Buttons.

First the "oh my!"

Look at this beautiful exhibit at the Kyneton Museum in Australia: http://thehouseonthesideofthehill.blogspot.com/2011/02/buttons-buttons-and-more-buttons.html I am so jealous. I would love to see this! I wonder if it's coming to the US someday or if it's even a traveling exhibit? It is truly a coincidence that I read a short piece about a woman's mother's button "box" (really a round tin) filled with buttons. My mother had the same type of button box and I would play with them for hours. Later, my children played with them and the buttons from my own button box - sorting games with color, size, number of holes, with a post or not, etc. Buttons have shown up in a few places in my life today. I also found this piece I made several years ago using buttons from my own button box, recycled denim, and a recycled wooden frame. Buttons - amazing.

Now the "oh no!"

I just may have been making hexagons the wrong way for 30ish years. I am doing a hex swap and love it. Today, a post was made about a method for making the flowers that we swap. I noticed in the instructions that the threads do not show on the right side of the flower. Mine does. I learned how to make these at a quilt guild meeting when I was in my early 20s and made my daughter's quilt "my" way, my nephew's baby's quilt (shown - denim and strawberries) "my" way, and several hexagon projects in between "my" way. Jeepers! What if I have to learn a new way? I guess I could, huh? Or maybe, everyone can make them the way they've always done it. We'll see!

Today found me putting a row of hexagons onto my own quilt and I realized I had one too many petals at the end of a row. Snip, snip, snip - off came the extra one. Oh, I so don't like taking out stitching! Reminds me of (and I paraphrase) "As we sew, so shall we rip." Sew on!