Button, Button, Who Has The Button?

January 27, 2022

Button, Button, Who Has The Button?

Hello all!! It is so good to be back blogging! I hope that your 2022 has started out wonderfully!

Ours was not so fabulous. On January 1st, Greg had a grand mal seizure, the first one in over 25 years and we ended up in the ER! Don't worry, he is fine and only suffered from his back being fabulously thrown out. I got a sinus infection from a simple cold that wreaked havoc on my voice and caused fantastic pain and exhaustion. But we are recovering and hoping that this is all the drama that will happen this year!

The first blog post and YouTube video for the new year is about shell buttons!

Quite a few years ago, a sweet friend of mine gifted me with a clam shell that had a bunch of holes in it. She asked me if I knew what it was and I had to confess that I had no clue. She went on to tell me that it was a clam shell and that the holes were made by a drill for making shell buttons! What??!!!! I was gobsmacked! I mean one should totally get where a "shell button" comes from right? But, excitement and wonder still coursed through me as she went on to describe how these buttons were made!

The beautiful clam shell that my friend gave me. You can see that several sizes of button were made from it!

Last year, I was perusing Facebook Marketplace for antique items and I stumbled upon a listing that showed several smaller clam shells with holes in them. That caught my attention and so clicked on the listing. I was thrilled to find out that along with the shells, the lady was also offering tons of shell buttons! WHOOT WHOOT!

She told me that she and a friend of hers had been collecting buttons for over 20 years, but she was moving and needed to thin out her collection. I was all too happy to help her with her thinning!

So many pretty shell buttons!

I especially love the "fancy" buttons. I haven't really looked into how these were made, but will be doing soon! I wonder if there was a machine, like the ones that drilled out the blanks and then punched the holes.....

Speaking of blanks, here are some! These came with the tons of buttons

I purchased off FB Marketplace!

Some were really thick and remind me of Altoids! I'll bet you could have made two buttons out of those! Again, I need to find out more information on what machinery was used to file these down to the correct thickness. Did a sander make them smooth? So much to discover!

Crazy small, wee itty bitty buttons! I have seen ones this small sewn onto baby dresses. I can't even imagine sewing buttons this size on. My fingers wouldn't be able to do it!

Another awesome thing the button makers did was dye the buttons. Being a natural material, shells were easily dyed in a rainbow of colors!

Not only were buttons made from shells, cuff links, brooches, shirt studs and collar stays to name only a few! What a wonderful amount of items were made using a biproduct of clam chowder! However clams weren't the only bivalve used to make pearl or shell buttons. Oysters, Abalone, Cowry, Mussel and Nautilus shells were also used!

Bodice from a Natural Form Era dress used shell buttons for the front closure! Shell buttons go waaaaaaaaaay back in their usage and continue to be used to this day!