Although “Black Bamboo” was not the first of the buttons I finished it is one I still have for sale, so I’m taking the liberty of beginning the saga here.
The buttons had been stored for a long time and were dusty and a little grubby so the first thing was washing and drying and, for this one, removing some weird backing behind the open-work leaves. I’m sure any vintage button collector will be horrified that I so defaced it but seriously it looked nasty. Whatever that backing was it had decayed, broken up and was very unsightly.
I filed the shank off the back (sorry collectors – I know you must be cringing!), glued it to my ultra suede and started the capture process. For the main part of the bezel I used 11° & 15° hexagonal beads, finishing with 13° Czech charlottes. I managed to develop the pretty frilly edge with little thought but a lot of enjoyment, it just fell into place. I love it when a piece just comes together.
Actually, now I come to write this, the whole piece sorta just came together. The bail is made with size 15 delicas, and if you look closely you’ll see an odd pattern that also ‘just happened’ but I liked it so added the charlottes and left it alone.
The chain is a particular favorite of mine. You’ll see I use it often with quite a number of my pieces. The design is by Gail DeLuca owner of White Fox Beads and it is incredibly versatile and endlessly variable. In this instance I used a combination of matte 15°s & shiny super duos, with Czech charlottes and fire polished glass.
Till next time. Enjoy the process. J
