Wednesday 20 January 2010

Buttons (lots of them!!)

Yesterday I bought 2 boxes of old buttons from Reeman Dansie auctions in Colchester, there's a great selection of colours, fancy and plainer buttons in them but they are all muddled up in the boxes so there's lots of sorting to be done!
I'm planning to keep some of my favourites for my button collection but will be selling the others in my Etsy shop. Some of the buttons will find their way into my Bags of Ideas and Mini Bags of Ideas crafting kits but the sets on cards and some of the other fancier buttons I am planning on selling separately.
I posted some questions in the Etsy forums, but thought I would ask them here too - so if you can help it would be great to hear from you! When I list the buttons to sell I would like to be able to describe them as best as I can but I don't know anything about where they came from. They are mostly (if not all) vintage - does anyone know how I can date them more accurately or is this not very important to people buying buttons? I can guess at ones that look art deco or from around the 60s say but could be completely wrong!
Also I would like to be able to say what the buttons are made of - what should I look for to tell if they are bakelite/ celluloid/ newer plastic/ glass etc?

Here are some pictures of some of the buttons I've sorted so far which might be useful if you think you can help me!



4 comments:

  1. Ahhh! Loving the buttons! Well done you ! - Will definately have to check them out in your etsy store!
    I don't really know how to date buttons but the most important thing for me when buying buttons is the size - so many people forget this and if I don't know I wouldn't buy them - (it only needs to be general like 1cm -3cm just to give a rough idea) I also like to know whether they are plastic, glass, shell ect.

    Also just wanted to say that I love your illustrations x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those photos are fantastic! I love buttons anyway, but your photos really add to the cute factor :) I don't know much about this stuff, but assume saying they're vintage is enough for most people. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry about that (I am also tidybaubles). Guess it didn't take under my jewelry shop name, since on blogspot I'm mizdarlin..anyway, I would absolutely love it if you would convo me, or link to my blog, or whatever works for you and let me know when you decide to sell those buttons. Thwy are fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What beautiful buttons! When I buy them, it's not for a specific purpose so the details aren't so important. Good photos (like the ones you have here) would probably be enough to get people buying:)

    Glad to have stumbled here through the etsy forums.

    ReplyDelete