Button Collection Competition

Marsha Cassada · Jul 13, 2011

I've collected buttons for many years and belong to National and State clubs. This year I decided to try my hand at entering competition. I entered 3 awards. They are writen very specifically and if a button on the card is wrong it gets a red dot which disqualifies the whole card. This is called "getting measled".

The first card is 35 buttons, all with brown on them, representing all the materials and construction types. Any size. Any age.

My link

The next card is brown also but they are small. No smaller than 3/8, not larger than 3/4". Any age. All 42 are glass and must represent all the glass finishes and construction techniques. Believe it or not, the pierced one is one of the hardest to find.

The color brown is defined as any shade of brown, including lightened with white or darkened with black.

My link

The next is clear glass with silver luster. These are small and medium, and cannot be old (pre 1900); they must be modern. The silver luster is platinum. It is hard to find modern buttons with silver.

My link

It has been very educational to assemble these cards. My goal this first (and maybe only time!) is NOT to get a measle. Winning a ribbon would be nice, too

.

I've competed with my horses, and discovered it is not really my "thing". Competing with buttons may not be, either. But, like horses, I want to try it at least once.

SampleMM · Jul 13, 2011

Wow, you have a very nice collection of buttons. I had no idea they had competitions for them......pretty neat. Let us know how you make out!

REO · Jul 13, 2011

OH WOW!!! Those are totally GORGEOUS!!!!

I love buttons too. I hope you win!!!!

Please do let us know!

Equuisize · Jul 13, 2011

Good luck to you. Looks fabulous to me.

I love buttons. Fun to look at yours.

I used to play with my grandma and Mom's

when I was a kid, stringing them in different order.

I've collected others since and used to keep them in glass

jars.

I should look for them..

Miniv · Jul 14, 2011

Marsha,

I used to do yard sales, estate sales, worked in an antique shop, sold on e-bay..... Your collections - with all I've seen over the years is beautiful. You deserve to win SOMETHING!

Ma---

Marsha Cassada · Jul 14, 2011

Thanks for the kind words.

These are not really super fancy buttons, such as Wedgwoods, enamels, and fancy pearls. Some of the high-end ones are breathtaking. I came into the hobby too late to acquire any of those.

Jackie Kennedy was a button collector; that would be a collection to ogle for sure!

Another category of the hobby is bridle rosettes. There are certainly some gorgeous ones. And their history is interesting, too.

Many knitters love to use the fancy buttons on their handwork. I suppose everyone who crafts or sews is bound to have a stash of buttons. I have several pieces of button jewelry; when I asked the silversmith who made them why they were always the pieces I choose first to wear, she said it was because buttons were DESIGNED to go with things. They are a natural for jewelry.