Button, Button……..

Who has the button? Bennos Buttons does! There are so many uses for buttons. I am sure you are thinking…..well, yes - sewing. However, there are so many more uses for them that can be fun, festive and probably even save you some money.

• You can decorate your home. Grab an embroidery hoop, some pretty fabric, then embellish and decorate the fabric with buttons.You can also put in a jar and sit out for a true country living look.
  
• You can use buttons as plates in your daughter or granddaughter’s doll house (what doll wouldn’t love dining off a laser cut wood button!)
• Speaking of children, why not let your children paint an inexpensive wooden frame and then decorate it with buttons. Put their school picture in – and you have the perfect gift for Grandma and Grandpa! At your child’s next party – have them make a button bracelet for a cute and inexpensive take home party favor!
• You can add buttons to a sweatshirt for a fun look or pin them into a piece of Styrofoam for a Christmas ornament.
  
• Flower pots take on a whole new appearance when adorned with buttons.
• These coconut flower petal attachments are wonderful accents for handbags or jackets. And to totally change up a shirt – replace the current buttons with these wonderful holiday theme buttons.

There are so many fun and unusual uses of buttons. Get out your hot glue gun or a needle and thread and let your imagination soar!

You’ve Come A Long Way…….Button!

Buttons as ornaments rather than fasteners date all the way back to Ancient Rome. Functional buttons, or buttons as we are used to today, first appeared in Germany in the 13th century. With the introduction of snug fitting garments in Europe in the 13th and 14th century – the use of buttons became widespread.

There are so many different types of buttons. Metal buttons, which include pewter, brass, ivory and silver, all became popular in the 18th century. Pewter was popular for men’s fashion, but was replaced by the brass button. Brass was used to manufacture more buttons than any other material – mostly because of its superior quality. Ivory is from the tusks of elephants, whales, walruses and hippos. However, due to the rarity of this material manufacturers began using animal bones to imitate this early in the 18th century.

Natural buttons are made of Wood, Horn, Vegetable Ivory, Mother-of-Pearl and Shell. Did you know that Horn buttons were made from the hooves and horns of cattle and other animals? Vegetable Ivory buttons got their name because they were carved from corozo nuts and resembled ivory – therefore, Vegetable Ivory! Mother-of-Pearl are made from the “pearly” lining of shells and Shell buttons are made from mollusca shells rather than nacreous (pearly)

Glass buttons were literally made from black glass attached to a metal back. These were quite rare. Some glass buttons were made of “jet”, a highly fragile and expensive mineral mined in England. Luster is a metallic sheen that can be applied to black glass buttons for a spectacular look.

There are many other types of buttons; Rhinestone, Novelty, Holiday, Leather and Acrylic just to name a few. Whatever your favorite “button” type is, we can all agree they’ve come a long way!

Organic Buttons

What's hot now? Going GREEN.

Not only is it a very cool movement in general right now, it's also very meaningful to do business with green companies and try to use organic materials when possible in your own lives. Every little bit helps to protect our environment.

Benno's Buttons has a great selection of organic buttons including corozo buttons, shell buttons, bone buttons, wood buttons, and horn buttons.

Armani shows that organic material buttons (shell or shell-look, featued left) can be very chic. While we can't confirm that these buttons are actually natural shell - they sure look like it, and we know shell would have worked great on this design.

Natural look or organic material buttons are also being used in designs for handbags, belts, accessories and more. If you're thinking of going 'green' - you can do your part in your designs and sewing, hobbies and more by choosing products made of natural or organic material.