Cute as a Button...

(Image courtesy of Creature Comforts)

A little bit about buttons, courtesy of Wikipedia:

In clothing and fashion design, a button is a small disc, typically round, object usually attached to an article of clothing in order to secure an opening, or for ornamentation. Functional buttons work by slipping the button through a fabric or thread loop, or by sliding the button through a reinforced slit called a buttonhole.

Buttons may be manufactured from an extremely wide range of materials, including natural materials such as antler, bone, horn, ivory, shell, vegetable ivory, and wood; or synthetics such as celluloid, glass, metal, bakelite and plastic.

Hard plastic is by far the most common material for newly manufactured buttons; the other materials tend to occur only in premium apparel.

There is even a phobia of buttons, called koumpounophobia.

(Image courtesy of Creature Comforts)

Buttons are especially sweet adornments! Even when you find an ugly button, it is probably so ugly, it's cute! Buttons can be used in varies ways; as tactile play things, to hold a shirt, pants, or skirt from falling off or opening, as closures in general, to advocate for a cause or a band, etc (see above definition). I have been thinking a lot about buttons in my sewing rendezvous and thought about them today as I revisited my cooperating teacher's blog, where she has described her advocacy through the Art Alliance in her school district. She has created a button to wear each day, symbolizing her support for the arts and to visually represent this to others at her school.
Of course I love this because EVERYONE should advocate for the arts, and she has used recycled materials, re-purposed into a button. Brilliant, Lainie! Along with advocacy purposes, I love buttons as a fashion statement, as adornments creating sophisticated detail to a garment or what have you. The thought of creating buttons intrigues me, particularly using unconventional materials to create them. I stumbled upon a tutorial to make buttons from polymer clay, which I think is an interesting thought and choice of material and thought it prudent to share! Here is the tutorial. While the color palette isn't quite the level of sophistication I'm going for, it's the process that I find worth playing with, for those of us who don't have immediate access to clay and kiln usage!
*This also ties into my fascination with creating wearable art!! Perhaps button-making or crafting unconventional closures could tie into a unit?!

Here are some other tutorials for making buttons from Design Sponge: