It's just gone 6:30am. Up with the larks this morning due to a blinding headache and high temperature. Been up since 4am. Perfect time to do a little blog entry and talk about buttons. Crafty little things that they are. Even us digital product designers love buttons! Although truth be told, I'm a crafter through and through and I love the whole "hands on" touchy feely part of crafting whether I'm messing around with my fabric odds and ends or doing my cross stitching and crocheting. Yep. Gotta love the textures. Buttons included.
I have a ton of buttons thanks to my aunt Jan. I've been nagging her forever to have my Nan's button tins. My Nan died over 15 yrs ago. I still miss her every single day, no word of a lie. I loved that woman and she is the reason I love my crafting today. At just 7 yrs old she taught me to crochet and knit. I wasn't that bothered about the knitting but I loved the crocheting. Yep. Still do all those years later. She was a wonderful seamstress as well.
And one of my strongest and fondest memories of my childhood was getting to play with her button tins. She had a couple of tins just jammed full of buttons. She kept every kind of button you can imagine. I kid you not. Never threw anything away. Also fasteners and zips. Kept everything. So when Nan died, a while later, I remembered those buttons and wanted to them. I didn't make any big deal about it, just asked every now and then. Anyway, I was thrilled beyond belief to one day get a parcel from my aunt and there was a box full of my Nan's buttons. It was like getting the jackpot. Nostalgic. Loving. Memories.
Well, I spent almost all day cleaning them thoroughly and then sorting them out into colours and types - lots of metal, fabric and glass (yes, real glass) buttons. It was fantastic. They looked so great once I'd cleaned them up. Some of them are well over 40 yrs old if not older. I've kept them separate from my own collection of buttons, normal every day buttons that I've bought over the years. Nothing special. Nan's buttons are special though.
Thing is, I'm not sure I'm ever going to use them. I can't quite bear to part with them. I did think the other day that I might use them as embellishments on Christmas presents I'm planning for my family this year. I want to do some nice fabric layouts/albums and other goodies. And so I thought I might add the odd button of Nan's to them. Makes the presents more special to my kids and my siblings. We all loved our Nan so much.
Of course, I've been thinking about scanning them or setting up a product tent to photograph them and then put them together as a digital embellishment pack. We'll see. Even that feels like I might be selling a part of my soul to the devil if I do that. Ugh! They are beautiful though and I'm sure others would love to use them (digitally) on their layouts etc.. Watch this space! x
Sunday, 10 February 2008
Let's Talk Buttons
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4 comments:
You could put them in muffin tins and use them as decoration in your home. Then you could enjoy them. It might bring a splash of color to a room. Just an idea. I love buttons too. And these look fabulous.
Such a familiar sounding post - my grandma always had various tins of buttons that I loved to play with as a child. I took some when she passed away but now I wish I'd had them all, such good memories.
Thank you for the comments on my 'Pride' post. I think all too much these days we bow to the pressure of not celebrating our achievements and its such a shame. I say lets be proud and loud!
I loved reading about your buttons. I totally get it :-) I remember playing with buttons from both Grandmother's tins when I was young.
Personally, I really don't know what I'd do with them. I guess one day something will hit you out of the blue and it will feel "just right". For now I say simply "enjoy them and the memories" :-)
Sue :-)
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Di, what a wonderful collection! I used to play with my Grandmom's jewelry box of costume jewelry...I miss those days too. lots of love, Dani
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