Buttons!

I reviewed a button jewellery project book for the Spotlight page in Beads and Beyond the other week - it'll be in the July issue. Anyway, it got me thinking and planning and this is what I ended up with:

Simple squares of silver, hammered with my favourite hammer (of course!), with two holes drilled in the middle. The corners have been rounded and the holes have been bevelled slightly to soften the edges. There are nine in total, and I've made a toggle clasp to go with them too. Mind you, I say simple squares, but neat squares are actually one of the more difficult shapes to cut. With curves you've got a bit of room for error, for filing to correct little slips, but with squares everyone would notice if your saw blade went off the line!

I can see these layered with coloured buttons to make rings or with lampwork discs, as charms on bracelets or with wire wrapped beads in between. I've added them to my Daisychain Extra shop on etsy in the limited edition section as this design will not be made to order. I may make another set in the future but each will be slightly different as that's part of the charm of handcrafted items!

I've also listed some simple wire toggle clasps in oxidised copper, oxidised silver and polished silver. They're listed in sets of five, and there are discounts if you buy more than one set. They will be on my website as well shortly, but the buttons will only be on the etsy shop.

Oh, and while I'm talking about clasps, the new Beads and Beyond is out now! I've got a set of jewellery in there teaching you how to make your own toggle clasps, and one of the giveaways is for three of my clasps - details of that are on the Retail Therapy pages. My favourite project is Rebecca Anderson's Songbird necklace - I love Rebecca's work, and she always uses colours I love! She's used beautiful bird beads by Heather Powers as the starting point of her design, and if you have a look at Heather's blog you can see some great pictures of the different stages her beads go through.