January’s program and workshop is all about buttons!

Bring your jar or tin of buttons!  There will be a special prize for the most impressive.

Buttons are often viewed as the “smallest antiques”.   Fancy or plain, we all have some special ones that we are saving for that perfect end use, or maybe we just have a jar or tin full of them, either inherited from Mom or Grandmom.  Perhaps you have started your own collection.

Often the fasteners that hold our woven garments together are taken for granted, and yet we have been using buttons for centuries.  As garments evolved from lose fitting to more shape, the need for better closures evolved from ties to buttons to zippers …. Some buttons have primitive function, and some are fancy and elaborate.

We will have a focus show and share will be sharing and learning more about buttons.  Please bring your special and not so special button collection to the January meeting to share. 

Pam F will be bringing several button books which might help identify types and origins of your treasured buttons.  Looking at and learning where the buttons are from, and what material they are made of. 

This will be an opportunity to do a little research and find out what you have.  Are your buttons valuable or just treasured?  Do they tell a story of travels, or are they linked to a memory? 

There will also be a workshop making a Dorset Cross-wheel Button.  Dorset buttons were a very important cottage industry in the 18th cehtury England. These buttons’ popularity declined with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of button making machines.  More information about Dorset Buttons can be found at henrysbuttons.co.uk

We will be making a (hopefully) easy Dorset Button, that we can learn about and enjoy resurrecting an almost forgotten skill.  It does involve a bit of weaving!  Kits will be provided but bring embroidery scissors if you have them.  The workshop will be taught by Pam F. and  Margaret S, with assistance of other members.  Hope to see you there.