2 Martins In a Nest

Kelly Jackson from I Have a Notion has a lovely blog post on Rachel Martin, who has recently opened her etsy shop, 2 Martins in a Nest.

Kelly planted the seed of an idea after seeing the buttons Rachel's mother, Cecile, sells at Just Another Button Company. That seed has now flowered and Rachel makes and sells cute handmade pins & headbands using paper flowers, grosgrain ribbon and buttons - best of luck to you Rachel!

Ran Hwang - Zen and the Art of Buttons

Ran Hwang at Kashya Hildebrand

Ran Hwang creates large wall installations using buttons, thread and pins to produce provocative images of urns, birds and Buddha. What, at first glance, appears to be just a simple image, is of course, an illusion - the work is intricate, thoughtful and alluring with the importance & placement of the buttons crucial, as this determines the success of the work.

Ran describes creating the installations as time consuming and a very repetitive process but uses the process as a form of meditation - just as Zen monks face a wall to meditate, her work is a form of meditation that leads to finding herself and inner peace. 

Pins are used to hold buttons onto the surface to form a silhouetted image, or to disintegrate the image. No adhesive is used, so the buttons are free to move.

Ran says she uses buttons because they are common and ordinary and by hammering thousands of pins onto a wall, she discovers the significance of existence.

Gemma Bishop - Bows & Buttons

Gemma Bishop, who was recently named "Hottest new jewellery designer on the block" by Marie Claire magazine, creates a range of kooky (& slightly bonkers - but we like that!) headpieces and bangles.

Her trade mark of over-sized bows, runs throughout her collection, with buttons playing a large part in completing the look. The collections are all made by hand in her studio, using satins, vintage laces, cottons and veiling to give the accessories a luxurious feel.

Marie Claire

Button Ribbon

I bought some of this lovely ribbon recently - and still cannot decide what to do with it! Any ideas...?

here

Button Wallpaper - Studio Ditte

Oh! I would love some of this wallpaper to decorate a wall in my studio!

here

Bea Szenfeld - A Swimmingly Beautiful Collection

Swedish fashion designer, Bea Szenfeld created her Spring/Summer 2009 collection "Neptune's Daughter" in homage to Ester Williams. Ester Williams was a competitive swimmer and movie star, famous for her musical films which featured elaborate swimming and diving performances.

Bea's goal is to design garments that always makes women look beautiful - above or below the water. I love the free flowing fringe details which must look spectacular moving underwater but I especially love the button detailing she has included on pretty much all the swimwear.

Dalton M. Ghetti - Miniature Delights

Based in Connecticut, Dalton M. Ghetti has been making detailed miniature sculptures from No. 2 pencils for nearly thirty years. Ghetti started by carving tree bark as a child in Brazil and then went on to experiment with everything from soap to chalk before settling on his now infamous graphite pencils.

Using a razor blade and sewing needle, he manages to carve the lead core of pencils without using a magnifying glass! Alphabet, 2005, comprised of 26 pencils, is his most famous work which took nearly 2 and half years to complete and is a delight!

Ghetti says: “The pencil tip is great; it’s like a pure, very homogenous material. It cuts in the same direction, not like wood, which has a grain. When I tell people how long it takes, that’s when they don’t believe it. That’s what amazes people more, the patience. Because everything nowadays has to be fast, fast, fast.”

The detail that he manages to produce is amazing - those interlocking links are a single lead!

Stefan Sagmeister - Graphic Designer Extra-Ordinaire

Stefan Sagmeister is considered to be one of this generations most important and influential graphic designers. 

Based in New York, Sagmeister runs his own design company, teaches in the graduate dept of the School of Visual Arts, has published the book "Things I have Learned in my Life so far", been nominated for 5 Grammies (& won one for the Talking Heads boxed set), has won just about every other important international design award & oh! - also lectures extensively around the world! I feel like I need a little rest now!

Sagmeister not only designs music album covers for 'heavy weights' like Lou Reed, Talking Heads and the Rolling Stones, but has also collaborated with Levi Stauss & Co for many years. Recent projects for Levi Strauss & Co have included the 2009 World Aids Day Poster, a series of deconstructed Levi 501 jeans installations and a poster design submission, "Button Fly" to the 22 International Poster Biennale in Warsaw, where he won the Golden Medal in the group of advertising posters. The design of the Fly is made solely using Levi Stauss & Co 'fly' buttons - it's beautifully executed and I love the link between the two fly's!

A huge shout-out & thank you to Janelle at the California State Button Society for bringing this to my attention!

Drawer Knobs with Buttons!

How great are these? They would make the perfect drawer knobs for your button box stash - but I am sure they would be quite simple to make too? Plaster covered wooden knobs with buttons set in the plaster - how difficult can that be?

Nick Cave Soundsuits

Nick Cave is an American fabric sculptor, dancer & performance artist and is also the director of the graduate fashion program at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

He is best known for his 'Soundsuits': wearable fabric sculptures that are bright, whimsical, and other-worldly and are also totally bonkers! Cave's first Soundsuit was made of twigs; other materials have included, dyed human hair, sisal, buttons, beads, sequins, and feathers. 

The finished pieces bear some resemblance to African ceremonial costumes and masks. His suits are presented for public viewing as static sculptures, but also through live performance, video, and photographs. Cave is represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery, and has exhibited his Soundsuits since 1999. 

Button Harvest Time @ Lil Fish Studios

I have long been a fan of lil fish studios. Lisa Jordan lives the rural life in the woods of Minnesota and creates art that reflects the variety of textures and colors around her. Using primarily recycled & natural materials in her work, she is especially enthralled with wool.  She makes the most utterly beautiful felted acorns, which she sells in her etsy shop, and which have long been on my wish list of things that I really really want just because they are so beautiful

Do head over to her blog to see yet another beautifully whimsical post of the little treasures she has 'found growing' in her garden...

Wooden Button Coasters - Eden & Eden

Based in San Francisco, Eden & Eden is a shop filled with goodies - contemporary design, one-off vintage finds and handmade accessories. They also stock these amazingly huge 5" wooden button coasters - I think they would be perfect under a teapot!

Rimi Nayak - A Button Collection goes Nautical

Fashion designer, Rimi Nayak, prefers to use unconventional surface embellishments in her collections. Her recent collection, which has a nautical theme, has given a fresh twist to the ever popular nautical stripe as she recreated the stripes with buttons on a fitted dress. 

Her love for buttons was also seen in her first collection, at the Lakme Fashion Week, where she had used wooden buttons to create folkloric motifs.

Eva Juliet

Eva Juliet, who lives in Canada, is a graphic designer and illustrator, who is happiest with a sketch journal in one hand and a pen in the other (and with a 'café-au-lait' always nearby - she's a girl after my own heart!). Eva creates timeless posters using a combination of illustration & the most beautiful hand-drawn typography I have seen in a long time. 

As a graphic designer myself, there was a time when most typography was initially hand drawn on paper (over & over again until it was perfect) and then either scanned or re-created on the mac - and now...? - it's all pretty much digital based, using pre-drawn characters, with very little drawn by hand - which is why these beautiful images & typography jumped out of the page right at me - the fact that there were Buttons illustrated as well - well that's another matter entirely!

Camille Lescure

A textile designer & creator, Camille Lescure creates amazing jewellery & accessories using a combination of vintage and modern materials - did someone also mention buttons...