Button-spiration

Today is a special two-for-one day of buttons. A while back I came across two button calendars on Etsy & I’ve been debating about ordering one of them. Of course, I was having difficulty deciding which one, but as it turns out only one of them is currently available. Makes my choice simple. Thought I would share them both, though. The first one is the 2012 Mini Button Calendar Book from Joelle Burch Illustration. The second is the 2012 One Page Button Calendar (no longer for sale) from Photography by Karina. Wish I had the time to make my own (Every month a jar of buttons in a particular color, or perhaps the month spelled out in buttons… Uh-oh, the ideas are starting to flow…). Perhaps one day.

Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Doodle days

Button colouring bookButton colouring book detail

Mentioned briefly last week that I have been enjoying some simple creativity with coloring books. Here are a couple of pages I’ve been working on. And yes, those are buttons.

A friend gave me a copy of My Wonderful World of Fashion by Nina Chakrabarti. Best coloring book EVER! So much fun! Page after page of coloring goodness and design activities. Any fashion book that devotes space to buttons easily wins a place in my heart! With a limited amount of creative time, the coloring book has been a nice way to do a little something without too much commitment. I can stop as soon as baby boy requires my attention. Not a ton to clean up and I can keep it nearby on the coffee table to pick up whenever I have a spare (right) hand. Tried coloring with my left hand, but I’m just not ambidextrous enough. The coloring book is starting to fill the need I have had lately of keeping a sketchbook and doing more artwork. Little steps, as usual.

I’m not quite ambitious enough to say that I’ll share a weekly “Doodle Days” post, but there will definitely be the occasional post about it.

PS – Nina Chakrabarti has two other coloring book titles that I might need to check out,
My Even More Wonderful Book of Fashion and My Wonderful World of Shoes. Now if there was just an entire book of buttons…

Button-spiration

Okay. This is taking a love of buttons to the next level. Button sculptures! Simple buttons strung on fishing line to make incredible pieces of art! I would love to see these on display in person. The artist is Augusto Esquivel, born in Argentina & now living in Miami. His work definitely draws to mind that of my fav local artist Shelley Ouellet (check her out if you haven’t seen her work yet).

Here’s what Esquivel says of his button work in his artist statement:
“I realize how insignificant and small a simple sewing button can be as it lays in my grandmother’s sewing box, but at the same time how unique and precious it can become as part of a work of art. Like an atom in a molecule, each button serves and shapes the whole. I hold the button to my ear and it whispers to me, “I want to be…..” 

And they do want to be so many things. Buttons, that is.