A Far Greater Designer.

A "carved pearl". Ordinary, but extraordinary! No beach-comber has ever found anything like this obviously designed and executed button. It is the product of a talented artist! Just the right shell was chosen and this piece was formed -- attractive to the eye, but with a utilitarian purpose.  Do you wonder (as I do) how many attempts were made before this item was completed without any chips or gouges? Personally, I admire the precision and the creativity of the artisan who designed this. While it doesn't have a great deal of monetary value, it still deserves admiration -- and a second glance if nothing more. I wish you could hold this in your hand, tilt it in the light, and enjoy the riot of color that appears before your eyes!

The shell buttons are among my favorites because they are natural materials. I also like them because I can imagine such items before they were touched by a human hand --  products of a far greater designer, after all.

Land That I Love

Today is FLAG DAY, so here we fly the stars and stripes in honor of our country and the foundations once laid down for us. I see this as a day for remembering.

Here, from the Mayflower Compact, are words that stir my heart and soul:

"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." 

Where One Might Wish To Stay

Among my favorites are the beautiful picture buttons from years gone by. These beauties always pique my imagination and cause me to wonder about the significance to the artist of a creation such as this one.

This is a serene scene: a simple cottage nestled among the trees on the edge of a rippling brook. Here, a footbridge spans the water and links one bank to the other.

It is a welcoming picture. It is charming and delightful. Can you not imagine a couple strolling along the banks, across the bridge, and into a meadow where the wildflowers erupt with color and the air is filled with the sweet melody of the birds?

Yes, on the one hand this is only a button, but it is also so much more. In a pleasant way, it evokes visions of a sheltered place away from the frantic pace of the city, where one can breathe deeply of the fresh air and smell the sweet grass or freshly mown hay. It is a place of peace, and a place to contemplate the glories that God has provided for us to enjoy.

This is a place where one might wish to stay for a lifetime, or -- if only a visitor -- return often.

Procession of a Daimyo

This is another fabulous button, a very large (nearly 2 inches) Satsuma with a lavish amount of gold in the design. It is a button that is certain to arrest the viewer's attention.

I searched in vain to find another like it online. My thought: "What is the story being depicted here?"  So I posted my question to the online Buttonbytes group and, as is most often the case, someone was able to answer the question.

A member named Laurie provided this fascinating bit of history:

"Amazing button! This is the procession of a daimyo (a feudal lord) traveling from his domain to Edo (the seat of government, present-day Tokyo) with his household and retainers.

"In Japan in the Edo period, the daimyo were all required to spend alternate years in Edo so the shogun could keep an eye on them. Since Satsumas were made no earlier than the Meiji period, this would be a reference to earlier times."

How difficult this must have been to live in such an oppresive regime and to root up the whole family to temporarily relocate to a different community every other year, leaving one's home behind -- and, perhaps vulnerable! I know the feeling of being uprooted from the comforts of home and it was a major time of adjustment for me. Of course, career military people and others move frequently. They take it for granted. As for me, I like to be settled. Where is my sense of adventure?

My Aunt Knew How!

This is an unsigned collector's or studio button, a monochromatic transfer on porcelain. This one is in my favorite color, but there is more here than meets the eye.

Why did my aunt have this button in her collection? I'm sure it was attractive to her artistically, but there was more to it than that. This button reminds me of the most important thing that I know about my aunt: her faith and the object of her faith.

My aunt was a loving wife and mother, a cherished daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend. But of all her relationships, the most important to her was her personal friendship with God. She was a Christian first -- and I understand that. So am I.

Maybe the most important thing her life of faith taught me was how to die. From the time she was diagnosed with terminal cancer until the moment she drew her last breath, she demonstrated to her loved ones how to face death with grace and how to embrace eternity. The idea of death isn't necessarily a popular topic, but the strength and courage that I saw in my aunt was amazing. She had no bitterness, she didn't ask "why me?"

My professional life was spent mostly in hospitals. And during those decades, I was exposed to the joys of childbirth, the heart break of ill health, and the fragility of life. People face their final moments in different ways -- some with fear and some with grace and hope. 

I firmly believe that the most important task in life is finding out how to die. My aunt knew how!

An Art Form on An Art Form

Every once in awhile we open a box of buttons or pick up a card with a gasp and our hearts skip a beat. That is exactly what happened this past Tuesday when I went to my cousin's house to look at more of "Auntie's Buttons".

This Satsuma is big and beautiful, and in mint or near-mint condition. (I see no flaws). And the gasp was well-founded, according to what I have been able to find out. The picture here is of a Japanese woman doing a floral arrangement (Ikebana). Maybe chrysanthemums?

The discovery of this button on a card of wonderful Satsumas led to quite a quandry for me. The question was, "how do I price a button like this?"  In this case I found something similar and just "winged it". Then somebody emailed me and said, "I bought this one 2-3 years ago for. . . and it is my most expensive button. . . " She had paid about $25 more than what I had decided, so I guessed fairly well (this time).

I love this picture button because to me it is an art form on an art form, something to be appreciated and cherished. Now the question is, "where will she make her home now that she is leaving my aunt's collection?"

There is always a bittersweet emotion associated with selling one of my aunt's nicer buttons. She built her collection when buttons were found scouring attics, frequenting flea markets, and pounding the streets. It took her (and people she loved) 40 years or so to accumulate the glorious buttons she had. The button hunt began for her before she ever saw a television show and before eBay was even a thought in someone's mind. She got her buttons the hard way and I have a great deal of respect for what that must have involved.

Why Rub Two Sticks Together If You Have A Match?

We make things too hard on ourselves, sometimes! Or maybe YOU don't, but I do.

It was in the late 1990s when I first started to learn a few things from my aunt about buttons. Back then, if she showed me a silver lustered button, I would immediately think it was metal. I was amazed that she could just look into a box of buttons and say that "metal" one was black glass.

One of the things she did for me was to give me a list of items that I would need for working with buttons. She recommended a little zip pouch to carry my tools, a lighted magnifier, an awl, a graphite pencil with an eraser, and some other things. One was a button measure.

Now, a decade later, I just bought my first button measure. After struggling all this time trying to get  accurate dimensions on buttons by using a wooden ruler, I just spent a whopping $5.00 to buy the official NBS (National Button Society) measure. This thing is worth at least two or three times what I paid!

Now, my analogy is a little silly, I guess. But suppose you wanted to build a campfire at your tent site and you began rubbing sticks together to produce a spark to ignite some dry grass or paper when you had matches available? You just lost a precious commodity: time!  That is how foolish I have been. Button measures are within anyone's budget, and I've stumbled along for a decade without one. Oh, well, confession is good for the soul.

Identity Crisis

This is a delightful button, don't you agree? If you could hold it in your hand you would see a fire in its opal-like belly.  You would look it over and maybe call it a butterfly (as I did).

"What a beautiful butterfly," I thought, "or maybe not!"  Where are its antennae?  What about its wings not being a distinct pair? What about its body? Maybe it is stylized, the product of artistic license. Hmmmmm.

It's times like that that I wish my neighbor knew about buttons and maybe I would invite her over for a cup of coffee and an opinion.  Now, that would be convenient!

All I can tell you for sure about this one is that it is beautiful and people who know buttons and looked at this picture online are not sure about its genus and species -- or if it represents a living creature at all.

Oh, and there is one other thing: the filigree "wing" at the top of the picture is damaged. See the tiny ends that are disconnected?  I didn't even notice that until someone pointed it out. Once I heard about the flaw, another look brought the damaged area immediately into view. The trained eye always amazes me.

What I like best about this button is imagining my aunt holding it in her hand. She had a particular way of holding something that she wanted to study. And she had a certain joyful look on her face when she studied something beautiful.  Whether it was a hooked rug, a quilt, a piece of glassware, a painting, a polished stone, a button, or any other thing that could be felt, seen, heard, or smelled -- if it was beautiful -- she appreciated it immensely.

I think she didn't really have to know all about it to enjoy it. If it was beautiful, it had a place in her heart. That is the way I feel about this -- uh, butterfly (?)

Searching for Treasure in Arizona

Today a friend bought this lovely silver and turquoise button and it reminded me of my Aunt's particular attraction to things Southwestern. In New Mexico and Arizona, she searched for treasures in Native American Art, which she especially loved. For example, on a shelf in my livingroom I have a beautiful paperweight filled with sand from the painted desert. My aunt and uncle bought two of them on a trip to the Southwest. My cousin has one, and I have the other. But there was more! In fact, anyone who knew my aunt  was probably familiar with at least some of the silver and turquoise pieces she and my uncle enjoyed:  lovely belt buckles, rings, bracelets, and (of course) buttons. In her last days before the cancer took its final toll, she was still wearing one of those beautiful rings.

A few years ago she told me about a special turquoise and silver button that she acquired on a trip to Arizona. The button was a uniqe piece made especially for her by an artisan there. She was particularly enamored of his work and frequented his shop several times, observing his work. On those visits, she spoke to him rather extensively. As was her habit, she asked him if he had ever made a button and he told her that he hadn't. She asked him if he would, and so he did. It was, as I said, one of a kind. She purchased several examples of his work, but it is my understanding that he made a gift of that special button to her. When he presented it to her, he said, "Someday, somebody will offer you hundreds for this piece." She thought he was joshing her.

The day came, at a National that she attended, that someone saw the button pinned to her jacket and asked her where she got it. She told the story and that it was a one-of-a-kind button. The person offered her money in increasing increments and when the bid hit $500, she refused it saying it was not for sale at any price. Why? It was a unique work of art made exclusively for her. I have no clue as to what it looks like. I have never seen it, but am convinced that if we find it, we will KNOW. And I believe that once again it will not be available "at any price"! It is my sense that this is a significant piece of art and that it will continue to to hold a treasured place in the hearts of her children.

A Lesson in Determination (A Story of Grace and Hope)

This tree is beautifully decorated with charmstring buttons and it is my pleasure to show it. Here, in her own words, the creator of this lovely piece tells the amazing story of how she found buttons to be a real source of enjoyment after a personal tragedy. In reading her story, I was inspired to be ever more thankful for every gift that God has given me in this life and to appreciate the fact that even in adversity we can always find joy if we are determined to count our blessings.

I was an antique collector for many long years of large pieces of furniture and used the skills my carpenter father had taught to me to restore many things. Then an injury to my spine put an end to that grand fun and I sold 40 years of collections of everything from doorknobs to fine furniture in an estate auction.


I spent most of my time in my soft comfy chair and truly missed the "treasure hunting" of antiques.... and bringing things back to their original beauty without destroying their patina and age. I still cannot imagine that I never collected buttons !

A few years ago I lost a marvelous little enamel painting in gold one inch across that was the center of a huge brooch made in Persia hundreds of years ago. it was a gift and I was sick about it. A friend of mine was a Flea Market seller and she suggested I look for an antique button to fill the space. That one little mishap of losing that painting brought me through the door into a world that has taken me out of the cloistered life of a disabled woman into a place of fantasy, friendships and utility that has held me captive ever since.

Being on a fixed income I cannot purchase or compete with the big time button ladies , so I have found it is pleasing to me to try to make little displays of a few examples of each type of button like little works of art in their own sculptural right.  I buy 3/4" high cardboard boxes . . . They have glass lids and are filled with a thick piece of fluffy polyester. They are made for arrowhead collectors but are superb for buttons and since I cannot sew them onto cards, I simply lay them on the fluff and pin down the glass lids which hold them in place nicely.  Best of all I can see all of them and I can also rearrange them , which I enjoy whenever I get a new button to add to a certain type.


There is nothing more silly than keeping a button wrapped in bubble wrap in envelopes where no one ever sees them again after they arrive in the mail and get opened once and wrapped away again forever. I am not a compulsive "buyer".... I am a compulsive "collector" though :-)

I also was a gifted artist who has lost the ability to grasp and control a brush or a pen, or even a crayon ;-) so the buttons have given me a place to enjoy using my creativity and enjoy the creativity of others too....and I can do all that from my place here in my chair thanks to the internet and ebays button sellers.


[Attached are photos] of a tiny antique feather tree that I decorated with colorful charmstring buttons a few years ago. It took me a full 8 months because I would put on a button and knock of three others !!  Good thing I was born with a determined spirit ;-)

The Simple Things of Life

There are many advantages to being a poor kid growing up on a farm. We didn't have much money in the 1940's, but we enjoyed life immensely in those days before television came to northern Maine. I think the greatest benefit of all was that we learned to appreciate the simple things of life. And that included buttons.

Buttons were always much more than the little devices that kept our coats closed against the winter's chill. Indeed, the buttons from our Grandmother's attic had many important functions.

For example, we had a wonderful time playing "Button, Button".  Grandparents, cousins, siblings -- anybody in the house could play that simple game. Remember it? Somebody had to leave the room while the rest of us decided where to hide the button. Once the deed was done, we'd say, "you can come in now." The player would walk about the room saying, "Button, button, where is the button?"  Those who were in on the secret would give clues like "you are getting colder", "you are warm", "getting warmer", and so forth until the button was found. Oh, that was GREAT entertainment on a winter evening while the wood fire crackled in the cast iron stove and the corn popped over the fire.

Another great button pastime was to get a big darning needle, some yarn or string, and Grammie's sewing basket. What great pleasure we found in simply stringing and restringing coat buttons of every size, shape, and color. I wonder how many times she heard, "Can we play with your buttons?" (We didn't know the appropriate use of 'may' and 'can'; same with 'good' and 'well', come to think of it!)

I think the thing that fascinated us the most was looking at the zillion buttons in a huge trunk in Grammie's attic and watching her sort and card her treasures as she prepared for her monthly button club meetings. Some of the buttons you see me offer these days were once in that trunk in her attic. And when I handle them, even today, I can almost hear the clattering of the buttons, sense that "antiquey" smell, and see the glow from the single light bulb near her trunk. Whenever I see her handwriting on the occasional button card, my thoughts travel back in time. The memories are so very precious.

You know, I have to say I'm sorry that so few children in this generation enjoy the simple things of life the way we did. Aren't you?

Creativity

It was John Keats who wrote, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." 

Take a look at this button. Many years ago, someone created this marvelous piece of art from a lowly seashell, some dye, and some bits of steel. And I am enjoying it tonight. Amazing!

As I look at this beautiful button, it is a tiny thing and not all that significant in the grand scheme of things. Yet, it causes me to marvel once again at our Creator, who designed and executed such a varied and beautiful universe.

It caused me tonight to stop and meditate on the fact that we have been given the capacity to recognize beauty. Indeed, we appreciate the colors, shapes, and sounds all around us. We are awestruck by the crashing waves on the sea, the uniqe detail of every, single snowflake, the aroma of a rose, the taste of chocolate, and the vastness of the milky way.

And beyond our ability to enjoy the beauty around us, we also have the desire within ourselves to be creative! We imagine, we design, we plan, we build, we work, we decorate, we arrange. We certainly are creative beings!

Maybe you wonder why all of that is important to me. It is because I truly believe our creativity is one of the evidences that we human beings really were made in the image of God, just as the Bible says.

Ah! This gorgeous button reminded me of the wonder of it all.

Of Butter Prints and Potter's Sheds

All my life I've said, "farm life is wonderful for children." I know that because my childhood in the 1940s and 1950s was spent on our little 50-acre farm. One of my duties (and joys) was to help make the butter. We used an old barrel churn that was an antique, even then. Once the cream was churned into butter and "gathered" into a soft lump, we drained off the buttermilk and gave the fresh butter to Mom. She was expert at taking the newly churned butter to wash it, work it, press it into the wooden butter print, and wrap the resulting block of butter in fresh parchment. It was a work of art and a labor of love.

Some prints were just plain, hinged wood, but others had a design on the base. When soft butter was pressed into such a print, the design was imprinted into the block of butter. I loved to look at the "fancy" butter that resulted. (Thing is, before TV and video games, we had to make our own entertainment.) Though it was hard work, making butter was fun!

Why did I tell you that? I told you about butter prints so you can understand how my aunt got her "cow button" from a potter's shed. It went like this:

One day my aunt and uncle decided to stop at a potter's shed. They watched with fascination as the potter deftly shaped his clay. As the piece took shape, my aunt's mind was turning just as surely as the potter's wheel.  Just as fast, too. And her thoughts naturally turned to buttons. "Do you ever make buttons?" she asked the potter. He responded that he didn't. But being the persistent button lover that she was, she asked, "would you?" Well, the potter would, he guessed. He didn't exactly know how to design one.

That was just a minor problem to "Auntie", who found a butter print with a cow carved into the base. She thought that would be a perfect mold for a button. Problem solved! She gave the butter print to the potter and he produced his very first button. Resourceful button hunter, wasn't she!

Comparing Books and Buttons

Our daughter is a book seller, and I am here to tell you that when it comes to pricing books vs pricing buttons, there is no comparison. Most of the time when Valerie lists a book for sale online, what an advantage she has! She just enters the ISBN and up pops a suggested price and a list of prices that other people are currently asking for it. Wouldn't it be nice if buttons had ISBNs? We cannot pick up a button and read a title or find an ISBN printed on it! It is OH, so nice if we recognize it or find it online or in a reference book. But even when we know the name of a button, prices are all over the place.     Let's talk about this Weeber button as an example. When I found it, I looked at it and remembered the realistic tomato that I  sold several years ago. I didn't have a clue back then that it was a Weeber.  In fact, I had never heard the name Weeber associated with buttons. But I remember when I offered that tomato for $8.00 it sold very quickly. Not only that, there were many inquiries, "is it still available?" From the interest it generated,  I knew I had let that tomato go for way too little.

Since confession is good for the soul, I called my aunt and told her I had made a mistake with her tomato button. Her response? "Don't worry about it, dear. I'm happy for them. I always love it when I get a good deal and I love it when somebody else does, too!". (That took some of the pressure off).

So what about the lovely one pictured here? I couldn't find it online or in the Big Book. So I turned to the Buttonbytes folks and they seemed to agree that it is a Weeber -- the leaves were the best evidence for them, they said. "Great", I thought! Then I got an email, "If you are planning on selling that Weeber, I would like to have it." I thought I'd like to have it, too. But that is the case with SO many of my Aunt's buttons and I simply cannot afford everything I like. So I decided to sell it to the inquirer.

The quandry was "what do I charge?" I'm told the fair price is what the market will bear. But where do you start when you don't even see another one like it? In this case, the buyer and I settled on $30.00 and I am still not sure if the "Price Is Right". The buyer is happy, though, and so am I (just as my Aunt would want).  

The Saga of The Big Dog

Opening a fresh package of buttons from my aunt was always exciting. "What did she send this time?", I would wonder.  She had so many beautiful and interesting buttons, but this huge brass piece is one I shall never forget.

I thought he was the king of all buttons. There he was, ruling over a whole tray of "dog buttons". He was spectacular! I scanned him and put him up to auction online for an opening bid of $9.99 and the response was astounding. Every day I'd make a long distance call to my aunt and tell her, "The bid is $200 "  then bit by bit it climbed to $500 . . . and finally it was almost $950.00. My aunt was incredulous but so pleased because she really needed the money.  Me? I was in total shock at that huge bid.

There were only a few hours left on that auction and the button was heading pell mell to $1000, when "you've got mail" sounded from my pc.  It was from a very well respected member of the button world and she asked me, "are you SURE that was originally a button? Is there any chance it could be part of a clasp?"

This was back in the late 1990s, when I started selling buttons for Auntie. It had never entered my head that something with a shank might not REALLY be a button.  I shot an email back and simply asked, "how can I tell?"  She wrote back with some criteria and asked to see a picture of the back. The final verdict? It was almost certain that this was part of a clasp from a dust cloak. Beautiful indeed, but probably not a button. I never saw $1,000 crumble into dust and fall at my feet before. But it did that day, and quickly. I hated to call my aunt and tell her the sorry news. But I did. She took it in stride. And I ended the Big Dog auction.

At that juncture, another email came flying to me from the person holding that high bid, "Why did you take that off auction? I wanted it!" In the end, the buyer didn't care if it was a button or a clasp, so the dog went back on the auction block with a disclaimer.

Final sale price? $750! Button or not, he was beautiful -- a lab in high relief, beautiful handkerchief corners, and a very suspicious back. But somebody wanted him, anyway. Heart-warming, isn't it?

Rare Realistic Button

Sorting my aunt's buttons is a real adventure for me, since in most ways I am learning about buttons as I go. When I first found this one, my initial reaction was not to show him in public because he is from a very sad chapter in our history. Ultimately, though, we have to realize that history is history.  From the first settlements that led to this Union, there is so much to make us proud. But we have, also, things in our past that we would rather forget. Of course, that is true of all of us individually -- not just government, but you and me, too!  With that line of thinking, I began to look at him for his historical relevance.  As I pondered over this button, I decided at first to investigate him, find a fair price, and buy him from my cousins to keep in my own, little collection. But as I began to look into this button, I couldn't find one like it anywhere. So I asked the Button Bytes members and found that I cannot afford to keep him. It turns out, so far, that nobody has ever seen this little realistic celluloid button and cannot remember it in any book or bulletin. One individual has this one made from glass, but not the celluloid. The initial reaction from those who know more about buttons than I is that he is very rare. It is estimated that he is probably from the 1930s or early 1940s when Minstrel Shows were popular. So here you are! If you have never seen this one before -- now you have. I wonder where my aunt found him and how much she paid for him. This one had no labels or notes with him. So he's pretty much a mystery. When I found him, he was just there smiling up at me. And I smiled back because my first impression of him was that he is special.

Truth Claims

When you were a child did anyone ever say something like this to you: "Just because you read something or see it on TV doesn't mean it is true."

Sometimes I wish I could believe something that I see or hear, but it is just too questionable. This card of buttons represents one of those times. Just about all I can say for sure is that this group of buttons is interesting!

Just this winter I found this card of buttons in a box that I had bought from my aunt several years ago. She had sold a large portion of her button collection to dealers who traveled here to Maine for that very purpose. I bought what was left for a lump sum that was less than I offered and more than she asked.

This is one of the times I WISH I could believe everything that I read. On this card of buttons is a note that is unsigned and undated (but not in my aunt's handwriting). It says, "These buttons are from the estate of Sarah Roosevelt, Mother of late President Franklin D. Roosevelt". It is, in my mind, unverifiable anecdotal evidence. I cannot know if it is true or not.

The whole idea of truth is a lot bigger than a card of buttons. But this experience has served as a reminder that truth isn't relative and that knowing and acting on the truth is liberating. "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."  (Words of Jesus from the Gospel of John)

Lesson From a Broken Button

When I found this beautiful Puss in Boots button in a glass jar filled with various buttons, I just KNEW I had found what my aunt called "a good one".  Without looking him up, I knew he had to be Puss in Boots. Remember that old story from when you were young? I do. Imagine my dismay, though,  when I turned the button over and saw that the shank was missing! This is not the button it used to be. That disappointment was compounded when a search of the Big Book of Buttons identified this one as scarce and that it sold for around $75 back in the early 1990s. My thought was that this button is too special to be less than what it was meant to be. I'd like to buy him from my cousin and have him repaired someday. Then I'll love him just as if he was never damaged.   Just having that thought made me take a little inventory of my life. I'm not all I was meant to be, either. But I thoroughly believe that in spite of my flaws, there is a plan for me.  I want to BE that person!

88 And Falling in Love With Buttons After All

My mother saw her mother and sister actively involved in "all things button" ever since the late 1940s or early 1950s. Mom thought many of them were pretty, but never had an interest in collections of any kind. Well, things changed this winter while she was at our house! Watching me sort, card, list, and sell her sister's buttons made a profound impact on her life. She would look through buttons as I worked, find something of interest and ask me about it: "Look at this!" or "What do you think of that one?" I could see that she was finding it more and more difficult to see her sister's buttons go. I think the newly found love was growing out of grief. Holding the buttons in her hand was comforting, in a way. Ultimately, Mom made her first tray of buttons around her 88th birthday. The tray is pictured here with each button representing something about family. Some of her buttons are from my collection, some were her sister's, and a few were her mother's.  Now they are hers, and she is writing a story about them. My mother is a remarkable woman in many ways and one of the things I admire most about her is that she hasn't allowed advancing age to keep her from discovering new joys in life. I wonder if anyone else has started a collection at her age?

Buttons 101 -- that is what I call the instruction received at my aunt's kitchen table. This was a hands-on session to learn something about describing buttons and the features that are significant to collectors. It was quite an overwhelming experience. On the table was an array of buttons and my aunt presided over them. Tenderly she picked up buttons and described them, introducing me to the jargon that I needed to know in order to describe them to potential buyers. Yes, I was in training to set out on a pioneering expedition to see if we could market some of her buttons online. I was in uncharted territory, for my knowledge base about buttons consisted of "pretty", "cute", "beautiful", "plain", and "ugly". I suppose you could add "big" and "little" to that list. At the end of the day, I took my notes, a few buttons and set out on my expedition. But before I left, she said, "I would like you to pick out a button for yourself" (she had already given me several). Well, I picked out the one pictured here, and she was aghast. She told me this was a silver button and probably the most expensive at the table. "Leave it to me," I thought. "My eyes are always bigger than my purse." I chuckled and picked out a beautiful, lustered black glass and left very happy. And guess what! A few days later, this beautiful button arrived in the mail with a note telling me she wanted me to have it. I cried! So this button is a symbol now of a special bond that grew while we "buttoned" together.

More Lois Calkins Flower Buttons

Here is the second group of buttons from the set of twelve that I spoke about in my last post. I hope this helps you recognize them when found. They really are even more lovely "in person".

Lois Calkins Flowers of the Month

One day I was browsing through some of Auntie's button cards and found one with twelve different ceramic buttons, each one with a different flower. "Hmmmm, what are these?" was my immediate thought. But I set them aside, only to return to them several months later. At that point I saw that she had written the name and address of Lois Calkins on the back of the card and dated it October 7, 1970.

This sent me on a quest to find out what I could. The Big Book of Buttons is generally my first resource, but I found no information there. There was nothing on the web. People from the Buttonbytes online group responded to my query with some nice information, but NONE of them had seen a complete set of the twelve buttons, which I've learned represent the Flowers of the Months.

The first six from this set of buttons is pictured here for general interest, since so many people have told me they have never seen the set in its entirety. (See my next post for the other six)

Aunties Buttons

This is a picture of my mom and my aunt (on the right) taken in 2008. They both developed a passion for all things beautiful, but my aunt had a particular place in her heart for buttons. Wherever she went across the United States and Canada, she was "on the hunt" for more little treasures to add to her collection. She frequented flea markets, yard sales, antique shops, and even asked artisans displaying their wares, "do you make buttons?"

Some of her stories are in my head. Some are found in hints and labels on the backs of her carded buttons. Others are written here and there in note pads. But her wealth of knowledge and experience are mostly no longer available to us since she died of pancreatic cancer almost a year ago.

I call her little treasures "Auntie's Buttons" out of love for her. The stories I share here are in her honor.