button bracelets

One hundred yards of waxed linen thread. That is what I ordered; so when I saw the button bracelet tutorial at www.hopestudios.blogspot.com I got out my button box and made some of my own.

You double the thread and start with a loop at the front. I decided what button I would loop it over and used that for my measurement. Its important to use a long length of thread, there's lots of knotting and criss crossing you'll be doing.

From the back

Two finished and one new one set to go. On the bottom bracelet you can see how I loop the thread over the button I will use for the closure to make sure it will fit well. I've been wearing one of the braclets all day and its really comfortable and secure.
Emptied kiln, planted some freesias, threw the stick for Emma (about fifty times), two cappucinos and not one mishap.

I took a break yesterday and went antiquing and brought home a new village.

And We had a picnic near Morro Rock at Sandy Cove. Fish and chips with lots of vinegar

This curlew was very friendly, he followed us as we walked along the shore

there were feathers all over the sand

Stopped for pots but came home with more plants than pots. Look at those blooms! I bet you wouldn't of been able to resist either. I will be listing what I did manage to buy tomorrow on Etsy.

Later: In the depths of the button box I found some faience beads that I made last year along with some African trade beads, and used the same formula for a bracelet with those too.

I can't wait to go back to Sandy Cove for another picnic. That place has left its footprint on my heart.
Happy Sunday

xxx

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

Flocks of Buttons

Is there anyone who can't recall sifting through a button box, searching for just the right button to replace the one you lost off of your favorite blue blouse? Our household button box was a green MJB coffee can. It held other artifacts too, a dented brass thimble, a liberty dime, and a tape measure that pulled out of a small red plastic crabapple.

I'm following a long line of craft with my porcelain button offerings. Egyptians liked them, and the Greeks too. But it was the Germans in the 1200's that devised the buttonhole. And more button frenzy followed;

Porcelain 'calico' buttons from the mid ninteenth century.

Hand painted Victorian birds and mammals

My idea of high fashion which is not very. More of a country cousin look, where everything appears homemade, because most of it is. My buttons are two-holed and about one and a half inches in diameter. They are lightweight, and once attached to apparel, do not like to be thrashed about in a washing machine, but rather sloshed gently in lavender scented water then hung on a line to dry in the warm summer sun, country cousin style.

Now all this button talk has made me hungry for a piece of crabapple pie.

Care to join me?

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com