More Unusual Handmade Jewellery

As well as my button jewellery site, which, as you might imagine, exclusively sells jewellery made from buttons, I have another web shop which has a broader range of necklaces, bracelets and earrings created using found objects. The Unexpected Boutique has some button jewellery, but also features accessories made with dice, jigsaw pieces, safety pins and beads. The latest addition is this jigsaw necklace, which is made with jigsaw pieces that have been hand painted. I did this because although they came from a rather uninteresting part of the jigsaw puzzle, I liked the shape of them and thought it would be a shame for them to not be uesd just because the colours weren’t interesting enough.

There are also jigsaw puzzle earrings available, plus lots more quirky jewellery, all made by hand in the UK.

This site also has its own range of button jewellery that is slightly different from the collections on my main button jewellery site, so if you’re looking for things made with buttons, there are plenty of these to choose from too.

Button Jewellery on Polyvore

Some people have been creating sets on Polyvore – a brilliant site for creating outfits from items in varous online shops – which feature some of my button jewellery. I didn’t know this was going on until I found a few of them in my stats as referrers to the button jewellery website! Here’s one of them:

It features my red, orange and yellow straight button earrings.

You can see more using the same pair of earrings here.

More Polyvore Button Jewellery

Well, I got my own Polyvore account and thought I’d have a go at making an outfit using some of my jewellery too:

Summer

The necklace is the lime, navy and fuchsia button necklace.

I may be hooked…

Stud Button Earrings!

For ages I’ve been intending to make some stud button earrings – but wanted to really get them right before putting them on the site. I’ve had quite a few requests for them, so have been gathering materials in preparation

So I had the materials sitting there all ready, and had made one experimental pair but not really got round round to making any more, when a man rang me up the other day asking if I could make three pairs of button studs for his girlfriend’s birthday. So, spurred into action, I made some for him and some for the site as well.

I can now present you with stud button earrings on buttonjewellery.co.uk. Fanfares please!

They are currently available in green, blue and hot pink, and you can buy them in matching pairs or as single earrings to mix and match different colours. They’re tiny, cute 9mm buttons, and they have a pearly sheen to them.

Hot Pink Button Stud Earrings

Green Button Stud Earrings

Blue Stud Button Earrings

Custom Bracelets

These are my latest commission – the red and white button bracelets were made for supporting a sports team who played in red and white – I think that’s the first time I’ve ever made jewellery specifically for cheering people on!

Orange button bracelet

Red and white button bracelet.

I very much like the bracelet made in orange buttons, so may make a few more and add them to the button jewellery site in future. In the meantime, if you’d like an orange (or any other colour) button bracelet, send me a message and I’ll make on for you!

New Pink Button Necklaces

Looking around the shops recently I’ve noticed that pale pink summer dresses are definitely in fashion this year – so I’ve made a pale pink button necklace to match them:

Pale pink button necklace from buttonjewellery.co.uk

This is available to buy now from my shop at buttonjewellery.co.uk, and you can also, as ever, order matching bracelets and earrings to go with it.

I think this necklace would be great with a little pale pink dress for a summer garden party. I realise I’m being a bit optimistic about the weather and temperature, as it’s still only March and a bit chilly for this outfit that I’ve made (below) – but it definitely helps to plan ahead…

Summer Pinks

Button Charm Bracelets

These are the latest addition to buttonjewellery.co.uk – a series of four delicate charm bracelets made with small buttons for a simple, elegant look.

They’re available in a mixture of greens (Forest), earthy tones (Earth and Stone), muted mixed colours (Vintage), and the ever-popular bright multicoloured (Sweet Shop).

All of these button bracelets are available to buy online, from buttonjewellery.co.uk.

Further Adventures of the Button…

As regular readers will know, I mainly use this blog for posting news about my own products – but recently I’ve spotted some button products made by others which I thought were worth a mention. Since I started making button jewellery, I have become slightly button-obsessed. As well as the range of jewellery that I make, buttons appear in a lot of my own personal craft projects (e.g. my new button shoes, which I’ll be blogging about very soon…). People buy me button-related gifts for my birthday (vintage chocolate buttons, anyone?). If it weren’t for the fact that I don’t exactly have 20:20 vision, I’d claim to be able to spot something with buttons on it at thirty paces. But I won’t.

Anyway, I thought I’d make a series of blog posts featuring button products other than the ones I make. To get things going, here’s the Betsy Brown handbag from fair trade website The Travelling Souk.

This is made by a fair trade company called Revampt & Recycled, and it uses all vintage buttons, on a bag made from a combination of new and vintage dressmakers’ offcuts. So all the materials are re-used, upcycled, or made from something that would otherwise be used for rags or possibly even thrown away – a concept that I aspire to use as much as possible in my own work. I love the combination of all the different browns (I am, frankly, a huge fan of brown), and the fact that the bag looks a bit like a button-up skirt.

Another piece on the Travelling Souk that caught my eye was this Soizite Greens bracelet – featuring just one pretty button as the centrepiece. When I make jewellery I usually use buttons as the main material, but this one is mainly made from different gemstones, with the button as a contrasting focal point:

I’ll be back with more buttons very soon…

Button Charms, Button Beads

I recently blogged about my own button charm bracelets, which are based on traditional silver or gold charm bracelets, but with all the charms replaced with buttons. To twist the idea around the other way, it’s possible to buy sterling silver button charms for a traditional charm bracelets, too: on the left is a button charm by Links of London.

(If you feel that one is a bit out of your price range at £45, there is a budget alternative at 925 Silver Charms, for a mere £8.50.)

Trollbeads Button Charms

On to a different kind of charm – a Trollbeads bracelet or necklace charm which is encrusted with tiny sterling silver buttons:

This Trollbeads button charm was designed by Mette Saabye and is available at an online designer jewellery outlet called Fabulous Collections. My favourite thing about this is that the buttons are “stitched” on with tiny sterling silver threads.

There is incredible detail in many of the Trollbeads, right down to the clasps that hold the bracelets and necklaces together which are almost charms in themselves. There are clasps made in all sorts of designs: elephants, fish, flowers, trees, lace and precious stones, and I think my favourite is this swan, which holds the bracelet or necklace closed with its own neck.