Last night I had a wonderful surprise from a customer. Last week we had talked about making molds from old buttons. I bought a few recently, which is what I made my button rings with.
So she brought me a whole tin of buttons that she had gotten from her grandmother. I think she said that her grandmother had inherited some of them from her grandmother. I'm not an expert at dating old buttons, but I do know these are very cool. The designs and textures are exquisite. There are some metal ones, what I think is Bakelite, and some black glass ones. I researched those last night and I learned that black glass buttons became popular after Prince Albert died in the 1860s and Queen Victoria went into mourning. She wore jet buttons, apparently, but those were too expensive for most people, so less expensive ones were made from glass.
Lately I have been struggling with whatever the metal clay version of writer's block is. And wondering whether I should continue making jewelry. My wish for a while has been to make my jewelry and teaching into a full-time job, but the economy hasn't cooperated, and I have taken a job. I really do like it, but adding it to the mix of obligations has given me very little time or energy to create. Hence the block or lack of inspiration or whatever.
But the buttons have given me inspiration. I have been fascinated with the Victorian and Edwardian eras for a very long time and, using the molds I have made from my own buttons as well as my those of my customer, I will begin a new line inspired by those periods.
I'm itching to start.
Beautiful buttons! I can't help but buy them when I see them. Sometimes it takes a tiny thing to become inspired. So much work went into such a small thing.
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