Framed Buttons

FRAMED UP BUTTONS

i love makings simple displays using frames of all sizes, only have small ones here at present....

Adding a fabric or paper background.

Discard the glass

add a small piece of fabric for button to sit on  and give the layered look.

Trim the fabric or grab another piece and play around to see what looks best. In these samples below I have sort of done that for you.... use it as a guide or use what you have ........it isn't in stone !

Bunny Love came back into the collection of buttons recently and shows up in stock until Easter maybe.

This button display below, moved to another dimension by adding a really small hoop with the flower small button in it's centre. 

Add this to the frame.....need to glue this one in place.

Alex recently told me how she has used the mini hoops with my buttons to make brooches. I saw a photograph of these and what a brilliant idea.

This is a medley of some I framed up to see how the latest button designs would be....a simple display on a wall of say 2 or 3 frame same size & colour etc would be amazing. Very reasonable also.

Great for selling in markets, or adding to shops for a bit of value adding ....

or gifts.....

The 3 topiary trees in an oblong pot with tiny seedlings under planted....doesn't need any water !

I love this look outside in a potted array these days...

so mimicked this want into a button.

This button would be great on a seed bag for storage or for a gift to the gardening friends.

Flowers in pots..

Into the frame they go with some linen bits....use a little stitching on the extra small bit of linen. I did this on the sewing machine.... but hand sewn will bring it to another dimension. 

Just thought stamped with a word on the linen will be bumpy so don't expect a "perfect" word but seeds in separate words or Bonjour in stamp .....

Right now KMART AU have a box of 6 stamps one in flowers & a sentence & the other in leaves and sentence

at $5 each set....of course I ordered some this week on line....had the need for some things there....

So now I have given you more creative ideas ?

 I hope some of you have found your way from the newsletter to my blog. I used to have another blog once but took it all down ages ago....

Then I missed blogging, as it does the best photo sizes. 

It depends on programs what accommodates what....size 

I also missed writing and also sharing tips where I have space to talk.....in a way, it is a great way to connect.

I may have knocked out comments but you know I am here.....might be there I have not checked !!!

Each social medium I choose to use has it's benefits.

I don't use facebook anymore as I find it way too daunting to navigate.

I enjoy instagram and pinterest and my newsletter & the website....and the blog.

As I use my hands to work it can take time and mood to add anything decent or now in some blogs I am writing some of the way I work and the decisions behind those ways ....

If you want unique, creative people often want to push the boundaries.....not follow and hate to be copied and presented as another's work....seen a couple in recent times that disappointed me. 

Not always about me....as designers are often identified by their a distinct signature in their drawing. Many times we draw ourselves as some of the people, parts of us you sometimes get a glimpse of us...

We on the whole are possessing an inner strength, that often you will not be visible if you meet us. 

Now go and look at ladies in designs, mine and another Australian designer I know comes to mind.

Technique is not locked into copyright so frames are just fine.....etc. 

The Cat's Garden

The Garden is in this painted story where a cat enjoys time with it's person....not really a garden for cat digging !

To continue on with yesterday's story of me the designer and my buttons etc.

RETAILING

Button Products being in Shops/ shows

It is a wonderful feeling to see one's work on sale in another's store or display at a Quilt/Craft show.

I always gaze of it with a certain sort of disbelief & awe. It is an honour.

I have not seen all the places my work has found it's self.

Paris at one stage, France in several shops, America, New Zealand, Spain, and of course here in Australia.

Shows in Nashville, Houston, Sydney. Melbourne, places in NZ and some I would not know about.

Magazines

The very first was Handmade in maybe 1996 as we were selected by the present in Woodcutter's Daughter label at  a stand at the Sydney Quilt Show.

2 Cloth Santas, they got a full page....

Again an honour to have been invited/chosen ???

The second magazine was such a big deal

Country Craft & Decorating?

 It was "the" magazine in it's time.

This happened out of the blue.

I was restocking my cloth patterns in a shop in Canberra when a lady from the magazine was on different business & asked

 "How come our magazine doesn't know about your work?"

I muttered "I keep a low profile I guess !"

THE MAGAZINE SHOOT

The team did get in contact with me and came down from Sydney for the day to my home in Canberra.

There was 

a stylist !!!

a journalist !!!!!

a photographer   !!!!

&

me !!!

They selected what projects ( pattern designs ) I would provide for the magazine profile.

They styled the shoots and I told my story etc.

The wait for the magazine was 3 months as it was printed off shore..then there it was pages !

A little later I also had a profile selected by Country Collections when Rick Rutherford was editor and a delight to be interviewed by...this was a several of a series of works featured in the magazine.

Also a new magazine began from Rick's customer's wanting the how to sew version and

Homespun Magazine was born.

I was so lucky to be providing projects for the second issue of the magazine.

There was also another magazine shoot in my Canberra home from Country Threads as they began their new magazine...it was also wonderful as the style of Country decor was changing and my work got to reflect some of that progress..

Then the Magazine in France in French only was issue one of Simply Vintage  was trialed  on the suggestion of Marie-Claude Iperti who worked with the magazine.

It was my Christmas button & stitching that was selected for the first issue.

Happy to celebrate the magazine became the a great success and sold out in 3 weeks.

All the paperwork was done by email.... technology had found us ! 

 

Buttons

The Button Board

A slow stitch....

Fabrics and small projects add to a main fabric base. I use my buttons as the feature .

***

How do I begin to articulate the relationship of me the designer to supplier of my creations.?

Retail : direct to the customer by website, own store or booth at a fair etc.

Wholesale: selling at a reduced price to shops for a customer retail experience.

Designers : other design businesses which seek permission to use my designed & painted products within their design work to enhance their final pattern product.

Distributers : Businesses who buy the product at a discounted wholesale price to be able to on sell to shops.

*

From me the designer :

I love the connection of making my designs directly available to my customer base.

Packaging plays a part and wrapping a box with space to fit surprises and twine and bows and stamp tissue some days.....is so satisfying. Answering an email....   

When I sell to another designer 

When I pass on the button I design to others to create another design and on sell.

  I become a commodity... the supplier of unique designs and hand painted buttons 

I lose the connection to why I design in many ways.

Also the pathway changes as another designer imprints on to the product and takes it along with their ideas ...

I now become a stockist and painter of the product needed to complete another's design.

It switches very quickly from creator to supplier of a commodity to travel with another's label.

My work volume and stock holding volumes can change fast from being the latest to not needed much but the flow through is basically an unknown in a demand & supply world. 

Maybe I am left with 100 Santa paid for, that has not sold in another designer's work but I would hold the stock to be able to process the wholesale orders required for the button product and not have delays in supplying. I may over time think that Santa I designed should now be pulled from my collection. 

However that is not possible as another designer using this button has a supply of printed patterns to sell that the button is a critical piece of the pattern..

Designers are individuals who create from their soul.....and each will have a different reason for creating and risking in the market !

 

It is quite a complex journey....as all has been done with agreement.

For me as a designer I love to illustrate, and paint.

The beauty of a product does it for me...

Also the many ways one can use the creation.

When I stopped all wholesale, my body as it ages was being  worn in places by repetitive & the sedatory way I work.

I was also under enormous pressure to work long hours to satisfy the wholesale orders I was so fortunate to have Shows were having sold outs and desperate for continuing buttons stock. It was a buzz no doubt about it but in a reflective way I was out in the "back room" out of sight plying my skills. Never really engaging in the real front world created by another designer.

*

I came into this industry alone...

knowing nothing 

meeting some colleagues along the way as we all moved in a similar direction.....

Risking because it was all we could do...

A $600

 1/4 page ad in a craft magazine was a huge financial risk......

Few shops were prepared to take on unknown designers and our platform was small.

No internet then !

Newsletters by post were the connection and our mail order catalogues, as well as if one was lucky to be in a magazine profile after doing a Quilt show in a major city.

Printing was costly as no home computers.

It was a different journey to now but the risks are always there.

Maybe I will tell some more soon