What a find!

I have to confess that I have a large fascination with carved Mother of Pearl buttons. I bet you know the feeling about little obsessions. They inspire us to collect things that we find important. It was not a surprise to anyone here at the RBCottage that I would find a way to share my admiration for these little iridescent orbs.


After a little research, I found that these wonderful little pieces of history have a very interesting history that led me to Iowa. Iowa? (Yes, really!) Did you know that there is a Pearl Button Museum in Muscatine, Iowa? This small town harvested freshwater mollusk shells from the Mississippi after a German button maker, John Frederick Boepple immigrated to the area. The button factory opened in 1891 and by the end of the 19th century, the area produced 1.5 billion (with a B!) buttons. Of course, later the plastic button, depletion of the mussel beds, and environmental pollution of the Industrial Age, led to the decline of production of these beautiful pieces.

Thankfully, many of these buttons have survived for over 100 years. And the carving on some are phenomenal. In the first pic, you will see my finds from The Roseberry Cottage. The other pictures are from antique stores, ebay, and sweet customers that send me little bits and pieces. The next to the last picture has a bracelet we finished not too long ago.


Needless to say, our collection of these beauties is quite extensive and growing. I have been thinking that it is time for me to do a necklace. I actually want to do two different button necklaces: one that has buttons all the way around and another that has chain on a little less that half of it. There is also this really neat button (last picture) that will make a beautiful design for a bracelet. Something with a double strand of freshwater pearls coming from each side. Stay tuned. I can't wait to get them done to share them with you and see what you think.

Oh, I almost forgot one of the most important things about this post...You can win one of our a Sterling Antique Mother of Pearl bracelets at the MakeMinePink.com's Christmas in July. Very easy to sign up and easy to get in to win. Let us know if you sign up!

Patty & Belle

Just a short post today, but I had to introduce you to two new bracelets. One is custom designed Broken China Jewelry Bracelet for Patty from Pinkhugssweetshoppe.com. She picked some wonderful antique pieces while we were at Cape Cod so it has been a couple of weeks since she's seen her little piece of confection. I so like showing what people design with our pieces and will try to make a habit of sharing. She did a great job didn't she?

The second bracelet is made of carved antique mother of pearl buttons and we named her Belle. She was definitely a labor of love and I wish that you could see her in person. Each sweet iridescent button was handpicked, set in silver and joined one at a time to create what you see. One thing about using antique mother of pearl is that the luster is so intense and pretty. Miss Belle has a bigger sister (I won't tell you who got her...but it is someone you know...ahem...ahem...) and she will have another sister soon. Look for Belle on the website soon.

Our next post: How to make a bracelet into a necklace. Come back for a great idea!