After thinking about it for way too long without any action, I finally got started on a brooch that I wanted to make as a gift for Britta.

A multitude of amazing vintage buttons have come my way thanks to Britta. Initially from her own collection at home when we first met in 2005, even at first glance I knew I was in button heaven!

Once I was back in Australia a package arrived at Christmas, loaded full of home baked Christmas cookies, chocolate, liquorice, heaps of other delights plus another excellent stash of buttons!

Thanks to Australian customs, the next package took about three months to travel from Germany to me, apparently somebody there felt that buttons might be hazardous to our natural environment! Lesson learned – no more posting of precious buttons.

Last time I was in Germany we visited a couple of flea market’s (flohmarkt) and Britta helped me buy more buttons from various stall holders. My grasp on the German language was pretty much non existent, although I picked up the word for ‘button’ in a flash – knöpfe.

Anyway! As any fan of Kitty Came Home would know, each Kitty clutch purse comes with a specially selected vintage button that is used as a closing mechanism in combination with elastic. Hence my obsession and love of fine buttons

Some of the buttons that Britta has given me are collectables, especially the glass ones, so I have been saving them to make jewellery with. I have made rings and pendants before and this is my first attempt at making a brooch. I hope she likes it!

Now here are some pictures for show and tell

Glass buttons plus my letter & number stamps ready to go at my work bench.

3 antique glass buttons and their brooch pin setting (lot's of soldering to make the setting)

Brooch back detail with 'Britta' stamped on. This green button looks a lot like a smartie I think.

Finished piece, HOORAH! I oxidised the sterling silver to give an antique look

Fun times in the Kitty jewellery studio!

Oh, the pressure! What to write for my first blog post ever?

This reminds me of school days, at the beginning of the year when I had a stack of new work books that I had spent carefully covering in Contact adhesive the week before. The perfectly covered books, in combination with the new packet of precision sharp pencils I had neatly packet in my new pencil case, made me oh so apprehensive about ruining that first clean crisp white sheet of paper!

Actually, it’s all flooding back to me now, and I think I resolved this very dilemma by getting out my glue stick (also new), cutting out a picture that I liked (hopefully relating somewhat to the class subject) and pasting it in – problem solved! Once I had the ball rolling, each consecutive page  became less daunting for some reason.

Usually as I progressed through the book and particularly towards the end things became a scribbly mess (warning for future posts).

Anyway! In order to jump over this initial hurdle, I am going to do as I have done in the past and paste in a picture

my blue cat vintage wind up toy

Hmm… a cat with a beard. Interesting.