Much like a treasure hunt.. I sift through the twenty pound box of buttons that arrived to my home via USPS by route of Canada. Do Canadians have different, better, more unique buttons than that of what I have found here state side? This recent purchase, from a dry cleaner that shut its doors in Canada twenty five years ago.. the smell, not so great- but the hunt... exhilarating!
After you have been collecting buttons for as long as I have you start to think you have seen it all... now thanks to this box, there are "new" buttons to be seen. A painstaking task, sorting buttons, my younger sister sorts through with speed, paying no attention to the remarkable little pieces of history that she tosses from one pile to the next. I on the other hand sort a handful to her tons, while discovering each button, exploring each manufacturing detail, and what each is made of. Buttons have been around almost since the beginning of time, though only used for adornment by the Romans, it was in Germany in 1200's that buttons became utilitarian. Manufactured from everything from bone, shell , vegetable resins, wood and now metal and plastic. A recent visit to the Nation Button Society (
www.nationalbuttonsociety.org) unveiled single buttons that were selling for thousands of dollars!
A bit nerdy? Perhaps... but just look what Retro Betty does with these tiny bits of culture and history!
