Blogtoberfest – a button a day #1

I discovered Blogtoberfest over at Big Cat’s Emporium, and couldn’t resist the challenge.  The idea is to post to your blog every day in October. So I figured that I could do a ‘button a day’ post from my collection, with (hopefully) a bit of interesting or weird or funny or even educational info to boot.

So here we go:

 Here’s some fun bakelite buttons from the 1930s. They’re called realistics, or figurals or goofies depending on your preference. They were made in all sorts of fun designs like the cute wishbone and horseshoe. But my favourites are this fabulous set of bakelite screws, each one a different colour. I guess after the hard years of the Great Depression, a bit of light-hearted humour was a good thing!

 

 

  

My once a year find….

I’ve been waiting for today for a whole year. Its the one day of the year that I can visit a fair where I know there is a great stash of vintage buttons. These beauties are from a shop that would have closed down in the 1940s, and I found the most beautiful assortment of colours and designs. These are made from an early plastic called casein (which is the protein in milk). Mixed with a few chemicals it makes a great plastic, and though it has since been replaced by more modern polymers, it is still made in countries that produce a lot of milk, eg New Zealand. Anyway, enough of the chemistry, check these out!

I love the shape of this one!

These are magnificent! They’re reverse carved and painted lucite in immaculate condition!

 I literally bought hundreds of buttons today – all on old shop cards. It was so much fun!