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!