Welcome to the 2nd Annual Bead Hoarders Blog Hop!

Our hostess is the amazing and talented Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. The idea behind this blog hop is simple: use some of those lovingly hoarded beads and make something special with them!

Now, I’m the first to put my hand up and say I’m a hoarder, but it’s not just beads. Thankfully I’ve conquered the magazine hoarding (thank you digital subscriptions!) but I still have plenty of craft materials (yarn, vintage buttons, stationery…) and books. Many more than our little cottage can handle.

Slowly, over the last month, I’ve been sorting our living room, ready for Christmas decorating and I found tucked away in a box a stash of vintage buttons given to me by my husband’s grandmother. In her younger days my grandmother-in-law worked in one of Adelaide’s first Haberdashery stores called The Button Bar and collected some of the more unusual buttons they stocked. I even have some sampler sets, still on their original cards, in different colours and sizes. Many of the buttons date back to the 1920’s, I even had a small collection of WWI and WWII military buttons which I’ve passed on to another family member who is a military buff.

The Challenge

For this challenge I decided to use one of my specially hoarded buttons. Although not technically a bead I think it still qualifies. The button I used for this challenge I believe is circa 1940’s. I have this same design in four other colours and two different sizes. I’ve teamed the vintage button with brass chain in two styles (leftovers from another piece) and a mix of 4mm fire-polished Czech beads and Swarovski bi-cones in green.

I do love the shape of the button, with the gold tones portion resembling a crescent moon.

My eldest daughter nabbed this necklace right after I finished photographing it, even though it is slightly asymmetrical.

Visit Lori for a full list of participants.