Many antique buttons are , in actuality , nothing less than small works of art, and deserve to be lauded and admired as such.
In this necklace, I created a “ frame” of flattened vintage metal buttons to showcase two wonderful Victorian Era Cut Steel Buttons. Developed as early as the 1700’s , the process of cut steel involved the polishing and faceting of steel studs that were then riveted to a metal backing. The shine imitated the sparkle of diamonds in candlelight and items such as shoe buckles, purse handles, belt clasps, jewelry, and buttons were a glamorous yet affordable accessory highly popular throughout the 19th century.
I chose these two particular cut steel buttons because of their unusual checkerboard facets. A joy of working with antique buttons such as these is gently polishing the facets back to their original beauty. The larger center button also has the distinction of sitting upon carved Mother of Pearl with lovely green hued iridescence. The smaller cut steel button has lovely soft gold and pewter hued circular framing. Please enlarge the photos to see these details!
All of the buttons are securely connected together and very little glue is used. They are connected with wire and riveting and strung together using the shanks of the cut steel buttons for the beading wire to pass through. There is a photo of the back to view.
The neck beading is done with…dyed green fresh water pearls with little spiral gold filled caps, green faceted adventurine stone, pyrite stone, very tiny “delica” tube glass , brass beads, and coiled wire brass tubes. There are also very thin sterling silver chains just for design purposes.
The handmade clasp is a hook and eye design of brass.
The length is 18”
The width of the pendant is 1 1/4”
The length of the pendant is also 1 1/4”.
Colors include greens, silvers, and brass /golds, all softly blending together for a delightful and eclectic effect.
In the button collecting world, very similar almost identical buttons of different sizes are sometimes called mother/daughter buttons. I named this piece “The Mother/Daughter Banquet”.
Thank you for your kind interest!
Judy
Many antique buttons are , in actuality , nothing less than small works of art, and deserve to be lauded and admired as such.
In this necklace, I created a “ frame” of flattened vintage metal buttons to showcase two wonderful Victorian Era Cut Steel Buttons. Developed as early as the 1700’s , the process of cut steel involved the polishing and faceting of steel studs that were then riveted to a metal backing. The shine imitated the sparkle of diamonds in candlelight and items such as shoe buckles, purse handles, belt clasps, jewelry, and buttons were a glamorous yet affordable accessory highly popular throughout the 19th century.
I chose these two particular cut steel buttons because of their unusual checkerboard facets. A joy of working with antique buttons such as these is gently polishing the facets back to their original beauty. The larger center button also has the distinction of sitting upon carved Mother of Pearl with lovely green hued iridescence. The smaller cut steel button has lovely soft gold and pewter hued circular framing. Please enlarge the photos to see these details!
All of the buttons are securely connected together and very little glue is used. They are connected with wire and riveting and strung together using the shanks of the cut steel buttons for the beading wire to pass through. There is a photo of the back to view.
The neck beading is done with…dyed green fresh water pearls with little spiral gold filled caps, green faceted adventurine stone, pyrite stone, very tiny “delica” tube glass , brass beads, and coiled wire brass tubes. There are also very thin sterling silver chains just for design purposes.
The handmade clasp is a hook and eye design of brass.
The length is 18”
The width of the pendant is 1 1/4”
The length of the pendant is also 1 1/4”.
Colors include greens, silvers, and brass /golds, all softly blending together for a delightful and eclectic effect.
In the button collecting world, very similar almost identical buttons of different sizes are sometimes called mother/daughter buttons. I named this piece “The Mother/Daughter Banquet”.
Thank you for your kind interest!
Judy
