Use Buttons In Your Jewelry

Have you ever wondered how you could use buttons in your jewelry?

One of my customers, David Brown of Alabama,
made this beautiful bracelet with an enamel button closure:

                            It is simple and quite elegant at the same time.

Bead and Button Magazine has 3 button bracelet projects for sale

from past issues. Look at them here. They are only $3.95 each,

and could be a lot of fun to make.

Have you made some interesting jewelry using new or vintage buttons?

Leave me a comment, and a photo if you have one, and I will post it here. 

TUTORIAL: MAKE A COPPER CHARM BRACELET

                                     Let’s make this beautiful bracelet!

MATERIALS you will need:
1.    7 to 8 inches of copper chain; get yours from here:
2.    1 Bali style toggle clasp; get yours from here:
3.    1 20 gauge copper jump ring
4.    12  22 gauge copper jump rings, pre made, or 7 inches of 22 gauge      copper wire;  optional twisted wire ones
5.    6   2 ¼ inch copper eye pins, or 18 inches of 20 ga copper wire.
6. 5 or 6 charms of your choice                                                                    Enamel elements are available from   www.metallura.etsy.com

 

COPPER CHAIN AND TOGGLE

COPPER JUMP RINGS

COPPER EYE PINS

                                              BASIC TOOLS you will need:

             1. flush cutter   2. flat nose pliers    3. chain nose pliers

                                         OPTIONAL TOOLS you will need:

 

              1. A 16 penny nail or something of similar size diameter

              2. A chasing hammer to harden the jump rings

              3. An anvil, or bench block to hammer on

              4. Round nose pliers for making spiral starts

 STEP 1
Measure your wrist with the chain and add an optional ½ inch. Cut the chain with the flush cutter. The toggle will add 1 additional inch to the length.
                                                                                                  
STEP 2
Look at the toggle clasp. There is one jump ring holding the 2 parts together.
Take them apart: using the 2 pliers gently grasp the edges of the center ring and open it toward and away from you. Take one part of the clasp off, leaving it open.   TOGGLE CLASP

Now put the extra 20-gauge jump
ring on the 2nd part of the toggle.

2ND JUMP RING ATTACHED

                                                                     

 STEP 3

Attach the clasp at each end of your chain. and close the rings with the 2 pliers, pushing the edges towards the center.  Open and close all jump rings this way.

Now try it on. If you are happy with the fit, continue with step 4.  

ATTACH TOGGLE TO CHAIN

                                         
If it is too big, you can cut the chain off, and reapply the toggle, or allow the chain to dangle, making it adjustable in the future.   


MAKE IT ADJUSTABLE

STEP 4

Make the spiral elements using this wonderful tutorial here: http://www.beadingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2008/12/07/create-perfect-wire-spiral-free-video-demo.aspx

That is where I learned to make them. Use the 6 eye pins for this, or make your own: cut the 20gauge wire into 2 ½ inch lengths.     
                                           COLORED COPPER SPIRALS

You can use permanently colored copper wire for the spirals 

and for some of the jump rings if you like.

      

         

I bought this colored copper wire at Joann’s:

You can also make fun spirals and other shapes using vinyl covered paper clips.
Be careful that the pliers don’t scratch off the color, or tear the vinyl.
I used a piece of cloth between the pliers’ teeth and the wire to protect it.

STEP 5   IS OPTIONAL:    MAKE YOUR OWN JUMP RINGS

Make the jump rings by winding the 22 gauge copper wire around the 16 penny nail, or whatever tool you have substituted. Make the coils tight and even, pushing them down against the nail head. When you have enough wraps, pull the coil off the nail. Now cut each ring with the flush cutter, one at a time, making sure that each cut edge is flush and straight. You can pound each ring with a light hammer on a small anvil, or bench plate to work harden it, or just bend the 2 edges back and forth, open and closed a few times.

                                              WIND WIRE ON A NAIL

I was out of 22 gauge wire, so I wound 2 lengths of 24 gauge wire together to make the spiral jump rings. I like the way they mirror the wire on the Bali style toggle. SPIRAL JUMP RINGS

                     HAMMER THE RINGS                    

                                                           

 STEP 6
Lay out your spirals and 5 or 6 charms out along the chain.
When you are pleased with the design, start putting the charms on the chain.
Make sure that the chain is laying flat and is not twisted.

                                                                   LAYOUT YOUR CHARMS
               

Put 1 charm at each end of the chain, ½ inch in from the toggle.
Find the center and put one there, also.

Now find the center between those 2, and put the 4th and 5th charm,
spacing them evenly.

If you have allowed the extra chain to hang down from the  toggle, you can add a charm to the end of the chain.

Now add the spiral elements in between each charm.

Voila! You are done!

10 years ago, I put up my first hummingbird feeder. It wasn't long before a few birds showed up to eat. They nested nearby, and raised a flock of babies before flying south for the winter. The next year, the parents and their babies, now grown, returned to my feeder, and again raised babies.



Hummingbird Babies



Each year the birds have multiplied, and returned. This year, I put up 11 feeders and fill them each day. It takes about 2 gallons of sugar water each day to feed them all. There are lots of wild flowers and gnats they feed on as well.
In the morning, when all the birds come off the nests, there are clouds of birds at my windows. The noise of their fighting and the whistling of their flight fill the air. It is raucous, and lively.

When I was looking for a name that I liked for my new Etsy page, I discovered the metallura hummingbirds of South America. There are 9 types of metallura, and I loved all of their names: firethroated metaltail, coppery metaltail, viridian metaltail. Many shop names that I liked were already taken, so I was surprised to find metallura free to use. Look how beautiful this viridian metaltail, (metallura williami) is.



Metallura Williami



.

The Way To Enameling

I love buttons! They are such an ancient work of art.

I have been a professional seamstress for over 30 years. Many of my customers provide the most wonderful vintage buttons for the clothing items I make for them.

Realizing that my own button box was rather sparse, I started looking on eBay and found many treasures there. I spent a lot on bolstering my button collection!

I soon discovered that what I really wanted to do was to make my own buttons. I bought some odd cabochons, like the dinosaur bone, at an old rock shop in Southern Utah and some silver. I found a jewelry teacher to teach me basic soldering and bezel making. .




Dinosaur Bone Button


I thought that the first buttons came out very nice, for a beginning jeweler. I was pleased, but they took a very long time to make; 5 hours or more makes them hard to market.

One day my husband found a small enameling kiln on craigslist and asked me if I wanted it.




Paragon Kiln 8x8x4”

Sure! But what could I do with it? I started researching contemporary enameling artists online and found the most beautiful work I had ever seen. I was hooked immediately.

I spent another small fortune (for me) buying enameling supplies, tools and lots of books.
My first piece was a button!



My First Enamel Button


And then another and another.
Instead of 5 hours, I am now making them in a fraction of that time. Almost instant gratification! If I don't like a result, I can enamel over, or grind part of it off, and the layers make it much more interesting.

I still pay the bills by custom sewing, but my heart is in the kiln. By offering my art on ETSY, I might be able to keep up with the cost of supplies, and eventually be able to work more in fine silver and gold.