Mixed Media Brooches

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The base of these brooches is vintage buttons that belonged to my mother’s paternal aunt, who was an expert seamstress.  She was a gracious dignified lady who lived through the depression years and learned to recycle EVERYTHING, which is so in vogue in 2012.  When a garment saw its better days, she removed all the notions from it; she removed zippers, buttons, decorative trims then cut the fabric into usable squares and this was something she did in 1950, 60′s all the way to her death in 1990′s. I was fortunate enough to inherit her stash.  I got bags of zippers in every spectrum of the rainbow and bags of buttons.  They are abalone, bakelite, and wood, metal and some are plain beautiful 1950’s large buttons.

I regret not photographing the vintage buttons used in these brooches, as they were simple, plain with no decorations on them.  I used commercially made wool fiber to epoxy to the back so I could stitch the antique beads.  Yes, she saved broken necklaces and bracelets too.  I am so grateful for her frugalness.   The Mary Kay, Cherry Red and Pink are composed of a larger button with a smaller one mounted on top. The seed beads are intermingled contemporary with vintage and the fascinating attribute of the vintage is they are faceted.   I added a description on each brooch but I discovered the format of WordPress does not present the description in the gallery format.