Button Up

I've been collecting buttons for many years.  Some are glass, bone, bakelite; many with beautiful designs and jewels embedded. Some are huge and some are tiny baby clothes buttons. Usually they come in glass jars with pieces of costume jewelry, hair combs, thimbles and buckles included.  So what does one do with gallons of buttons?  I don't know.  

Here are some of my favorites.  The clear bunch of cherries, an art deco era piano keys button and my fav, this large 60's button with little velvet flowers encased.

MOCCASINS

Of all the antiques and collectibles I've bought and sold over the years, the Native American ones are the only things I never parted with. I don't know why. I guess maybe because of the historical factor and the fact that there are finite numbers of the old stuff. I have stacks of books covering Native Americana and I'm embarrassed to say, its been too long since I have read them because I can't remember anything about these moccasins. The bead work designs, the beads themselves, colors of beads, style of moccasins, what the moccasins are made of and stitches etc. are all ways to discern the area and tribe they came from. The top ones are women's moccasins. Believe it or not, the women made all the clothes and yet, menswear and children's clothing are worth the most. The top moccasins are from the Arapaho tribe.

The rest of the moccasins are either children's or baby moccasins. They also are all Plains tribes.

Though older, early moccasins wouldn't have used colored leather. They did use natural dyes and dyed porcupine quill work was used by the tribes in the Northeastern U.S.

The bottoms of these are made of parfleche (brain tanned deer hide) and are sinew sewn. Moccasins from the northeastern U.S. were made from moose hide and smell smoky from the tanning process.

These baby mocs were from Kansas and are older (early 20th century) and made for the souvenir trade. If the moccasins were beaded all over (on the bottoms too) they were burial moccasins.

Buttons Galore

What do you do with hundreds and hundreds of buttons? Well, I glued them on an old mannequin.

I probably have about 5 gallons of old buttons. I've been collecting them for many years.

Here is a closeup of some of them. I used to buy those mason jars filled with old jewelry etc., and buttons.

This is my most recent button. My friend gave it to me. It is Bakelite and about 3" long. I'd like to see the button hole for this.

Somewhere In Time

This is in honor of all the summer weddings coming up. I bought this bride's trousseau many years ago at Round Top, Texas. It is over a hundred years old. The box is handmade and lined with an embossed paper and edged in paper lace. Inside are the bride's accoutrement; a veil and a tiara/headpiece made of beeswax flowers that look somewhat like snowdrops. There are also several additional wax pieces such as the groom's boutonniere. The bride even made little wax pierced earrings that are lying atop the picture. Notice the groom's handmade bowtie.

Here are the bride and groom in a full length pose. Wonder what they are looking at off to the right? Probably to keep them from closing their eyes to the flash.

The groom's bowtie is still lovingly pressed, with tiny pink embroidered flowers and designs and pink stitches around the edges.

The wedded couple in closeup. Is that a handshake to seal the deal? Somebody lied to him about his hairdo. The happy couple was from Hondo, Texas. Anybody know them?

I have this grouping hanging on an old upright wooden closet. It is an old store tie display. The little pink plaid dress is from around the turn of the century and when I bought it, there were several with the same style, just varying sizes from teeny to around 8 years old. I guess the mom bought one bolt of fabric and made all the girls in the family the same dress. Also, the little hat still has the original label on it called Peggy, my first dolls name. If you click on the first pic, you can see the orange plastic birds on either end of the tie rack. Those are clothes pins. I have never seen any like them and got them recently at the flea market. Their tails pinch in.