Creative Crafting Magazine Issue 23, June 2013 | Page 19

As a Lamp work bead artist , I like to keep my product innovative and fresh and was recently giving a lot of thought to new designs and products .

I was chatting with ‘ Creative Crafting ’ editor Anna one day and she suggested ‘ Buttons ’. I wasn ’ t sure at first because there was more to them than just using a mandrel ( the metal rod you use to wind beads ). This was going to take some thinking about . Well , I did think about it and after only a couple of attempts came up with the best way of doing them .
Who would have guessed that Glass Bead making would lead me into the wonderful world of Buttons ? I never would have , not in a million years , but now , glass buttons have me hooked . Oh , was I excited ! These buttons were going to be one off original works of wearable art that would finish off the best of handcrafted projects . I started with some simple domed buttons with raised flower patterns . I did these in pairs and although they were similar , they were in fact quite different from each other .
I then moved on to multi-layered buttons , some with encased flowers and some with raised flower design .
Delving further still , I made some open petal flowers , making the flower itself the button .
Last but not least and these have me , hook , line and sinker , I started to make ‘ Fish ’.
Fun and Funky Fish buttons , with a character all of their own . Each one has a name and the quirkiest face you have ever seen .
So I will continue on my quest to come up with interesting and varied button designs to delight my customers with and hope you have enjoyed seeing some of them too .
We know that there are many , many button lovers out there . Why not pop along to see Sally , she can create something ‘ Especially for you !’
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