Thursday, July 25, 2013

But then there is this stash of vintage Japanese fabric ...

The fabrics were calling me.  I answered with these latest two necklaces:



Necklace #68.  Buttons covered with vintage kimono silk.  The little green and white buttons are from a delightful shibori-dyed silk.  The base is Japanese chirmen polyester bias tape.


Necklace #69.  Buttons covered with a vintage kimono fabric, either silk or rayon.  The accent buttons are a slick and translucent vintage plastic, sold to me as Bakelite but they may not be.  The base is Japanese woven cotton bias tape.

Monday, July 8, 2013

New Works With Old Plastics

From a downsizing sale I got a handful of bowl-shaped amber-ish Bakelite buttons to play with.  I decided it was time to try using an old buckle as the center of a necklace (and as the clasp, since you undo and re-hook it).  Here's one using the buckle, two of the little Bakelite bowls, and two little celluloid buttons with some red on them to round things off.  From a distance, there is a slight suggestion of a mouth and eyes.


Necklace #65.  Vintage plastic hook-and-eye style buckle, vintage Bakelite and celluloid buttons, on linen/cotton bias tape.


I wanted to do more with the little Bakelite bowls, so I used a few with vintage celluloid/metal buttons:




Necklace #66.  Bakelite and celluloid/metal vintage buttons on Japanese woven cotton bias tape.