Beaded Button Brooches

We did the first part of a two-part beaded button brooch workshop at my EGA chapter Saturday. I think it went pretty well. If anyone has any questions or anything, please e-mail or call me.

Here is a brooch I made out of a keyhole I found at a flea market in France three years ago. I made the pin in the same way I make the beaded button brooches. I miniaturized a photo of Lulu taken at Elizabeth Park Rose Garden in Hartford, about 90+ years ago. When my sister and I went to France last year, Lulu went with us in the form of a pin!

Here are a couple diagrams for some of the beaded edgings I have used on my beaded button brooches. There are many more diagrams on my Flickr photostream. Students can click on the picture of the beaded cat button (on the right) to go to the Flickr photostream.  When you get there, click on the set "Beaded Button Instructions."  Here you will find a 3-page handout of directions, plus diagrams for all the beaded edgings I have created. You can download the instructions, diagrams and pictures and then print them.

The button below was the second one I made after learning the technique from a Bead & Button article. (My technique is pretty different, and all the edgings I use were created by me.) The small buttons are called "calicos" and were made in the mid-19th century. There is a nice article about them in Bead & Button magazine online.

Here is a beautiful reproduction Czech glass button:

Beaded Button Brooch Workshops

On September 22 and October 10 I'll be doing Beaded Button workshops for RSVP in Oxford and the North Mississippi Fiber Guild in Hernando. The workshop is three hours and participants should be able to finish their embellished button brooch and wear it home!

Here is a sample of one of my beaded button brooches. To see more samples, click on the slide show of beaded buttons (on the right, the beaded cat button picture).

For RSVP participants, all you need to bring is a 1" or larger button. All other materials are provided. The workshop is from 10:00 to 1:30, so bring a lunch (dessert and drinks provided by RSVP).

(NMFG, please visit the guild Yahoo site for a list of materials to bring, though most supplies will be provided.)

What sort of button works well for this project? Well, just about any kind of button! If you have a button with sentimental value (perhaps it once resided on your mother's winter coat), bring that and wear a memory of your mother on your lapel!

Buttons old, new, plain, fancy, solid color or patterned -- they all work. The vintage button in the upper left of this photo was recently given to me by a friend. I can't wait to make it into a pin. It's so me, the pink gloved hand, holding the big rhinestone! The bottom left button was recently purchased, at M&J Trimming in NYC. The button on the right is from Africa.

Colorful and inexpensive new buttons make good beaded button brooches:


In Oxford you can find pretty and colorful new buttons at the Fabric Center on University. Ellen has a wonderful button selection there. Even Wal-Mart has a good, though smaller, selection of colorful buttons.
Lastly, if you want to spend a lot of money, you can find reproduction Czech glass buttons online.  The glass dragonfly button, below, was purchased at the big bead show in Tucson last February, and it cost about $10. I think the "work in progress" button is funny; I found it at M&J Trimming on my recent trip to New York City. The soft pink button in the center is plastic.

Remember, 1" or larger. See you on the 22nd!

Not the same old katcha-counter...

I actually love katcha-counters. Something about the satisfying sound - katcha - as you press the counter at the end of every row. A few days ago my friend Andrea mentioned that she wanted to try making a beaded counter, but didn't have the supplies or the know-how. I told her I had a box of beading supplies that weren't getting much use, and I had made a few beaded bracelets so I could offer a little bit of know-how!

Understanding exactly what my friend wanted to try and make took a bit of exploring on the web. Once I realized what she wanted to make I was excited to make one for myself too. It seemed that making a chain of jump rings large enough to slip onto your needle was the basic premise, and then you could embellish to your heart's content!

I took a trip into the city to get supplies. I was headed to Beads World on Broadway, but wandered into another great store, Bead Empire at 39th and Avenue of the Americas. Both stores have great inventory and customer service. I didn't realize there was this whole "beading district" within the Fashion District - there were several other beading stores within this 2 block radius! At Bead Empire I purchased the jump rings, crimp beads, and drop bead posts I thought we would need. Just as I was getting ready to leave I happened to glance at a wall that had spools of already-made chain on it and saw this:

Tah-dah! Suddenly this seemed like a MUCH better idea. I bought all the other bits and pieces anyways - you can never have too many crafting supplies :).

Here are a couple of pictures of the embellishment I made to attach to the end of the chain - it looks like it might be heavy, but all of these beads were actually quite light-weight. These are just stacked onto a drop bead post (I think that is what you call it!) with a couple of small spacer beads here and there.

The mathematical mechanics of the counter are simple - the chain is 20 rings long - 10 small and 10 large. Depending on the size needle that you are using, you simply slip a ring between two stitches, and as you are knitting you simply move to the next ring down on the chain each time you pass over it as you knit. So that will get you through 10 rows. And what if you need to count more than 10 rows? That's where this bit comes in:

For the first 10 rows you would leave this off of the chain. When you get to the 11th row, you attach this counter using the lobster clasp onto the 1st large or small ring - whichever size you AREN'T using to fit your needles. Then you start counting your next set of 10 rows. Here's a picture of the counter showing knitting at row 11.

And here is a picture of the counter showing knitting at row 14.

You would leave the lobster clasp embellishment in place attached to the 1st ring for 10 rows, and then bump it down to the next large or small ring (depending on which size DOESN'T fit your needles). With this method you should be able to count to 100 rows. Actually, I guess 110...

This part still needs a little bit of work. I wanted the lobster clasp to be easy to open and close so I used a large size, but the clasp is a bit too heavy. I think a medium clasp will be fine, I just didn't have one in my beading supplies. When I get down to the Bead District again I will pick one up. One parting artistic shot - all taken with my cell phone cam, btw!

I always seem to need a food reward for my projects - hmmm. That explains a lot. Anywho, today I made Almond Poppyseed Bread. Delish!