I'M BACK IN BLACK (GLASS BUTTONS)
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| Lyrics from AC/DC Back In Black |
"It's been too long and I'm glad to be back." - AC/DC, Back in Black, July, 1980
and Hellen A. Handbasket, February, 2015.
(At the Arizona State Button Society Show)
My tray of buttons entered in Arizona for "The Old West" back in 2003. 1st Place
**Note: Button labeled Linoleum is actually Masonite. Click the photo to enlarge for more detail.
You got some 'splaining to do!
I suppose some of my button friends wonder why I just fell off the radar after being so active for 15 years (and gone for 5). So, for them, an explanation is in order.
After 20 years of collecting antique and collectible clothing buttons, I took a long break from my collection and all the associated activities. Life took a curvy and bumpy road for a while, and something had to go. If you're interested, you can read about a lot of it here:
The Arizona State Button Society show was February 21, 2015. I attended and it was my first button show in 5 years. It was awesome!
The last Arizona State Button Society show I attended (and entered competition for) was in 2009, just a year after the initial diagnosis of my father's Lung Cancer. My mother also had the beginnings of Parkinsonian Related Dementia (though we thought it was mental issues for years because we had no idea that Dementia is an issue for Parkinson's Disease). After the show, I left my position as Awards Chair for Arizona, and let my membership expire.
Mom's medical issues ramped up in 2010 starting with a fall, in which she broke her hip and the Dementia became worse. She was later moved to an assisted living facility since Dad couldn't take care of her, nor could my sister or I.
I remained a member of the National Button Society, but their Bulletins remained unopened and tossed in a pile in my Button Room. I had unsubscribed from emails from Button Bytes about that same time (though, remained a member).
I have written a few articles over the years. An article for Victoria Magazine on general button collecting, an article at a website on-line about Burwood and Wood Composition, a few for Arizona's bulletins, a large two part article for WRBA on Native American buttons, and one for the NBS Bulletin on Leather (which was done by request as a fill in for the regular contributor on Materials, Jocelyn Howells). Writing has been something I always loved, but I was finding it harder and harder to find time or any joy in doing research, or continuing to write while dealing with my parents.
The next year, I stopped over to the hotel the day before the 2010 Arizona show, but only to visit my old friend Jocelyn Howells, who came in to sell buttons as a dealer at the show. What a treat! We visited in her room, I shopped with her, and then just went home. The buttons that I bought that year remained in a bag on my desk for another 5 years.
Life seemed to be full of loss. In 2010 I lost my Dad and just 47 days later, my mother. From 2008 to 2014 I lost 7 family members (including my 2 dogs) and one friend. The final straw was losing both of my precious Beastie Boys fur children. First my Yorkie Ted E. Bear in August of 2013 and then my little heart and soul Poodle boy Jack who passed at home March 13, 2014 on my lap, with the assistance of an in-home veterinarian.
Five days later, I decided I needed to get out of the house for my own mental sanity! I put the top down on the car and drove around the neighborhood to go wander around at yard sales to just get out of my own way.
I found a set of large heavy duty wire and steel garage shelves that we really needed and returned the next day to pay for them, dismantle and load it up in our truck. It was hot out that day, and I was invited in for a glass of water when we finished. THEN I see a teeny tiny face outside on the patio, under a pile of dirty blankets. THE cutest little Chihuahua I've ever seen. I asked if I could hold her and while I did (and she licked every inch of my face), I was told that she needed a new home. SO... I was adopted again, by tiny 4-1/2 lb. Luna (the Chihuahua). It was love at FURst sight!
Suddenly things brightened up at home and in my head. How could it not?! Just look at this face!
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| Luna (aka Louie, Lunatic, LuWeeeee, Baby Girl, Stinky, Hey Stop That and Dammitlouie!) |
Luna has had nothing done for her by her previous caregiver No shots, and she isn't spayed. When I ask them what she eats, he holds up an empty bag. There is no food for her and I don't see a water bowl. I take her to the vet to be looked at. We go through getting 4 stubborn baby canine teeth to fall out. I buy bully sticks and make her a few boiled bones. We start her immunizations. Two baby teeth still remain, so we also schedule surgery to remove them along with the spay. We were ready for the surgery when she came into heat a week before the date. We wait while she was weird, whines and humps her dog bed and blankets. Turns out she's in the middle of a false pregnancy, We wait for months for it all to end and she comes through her surgery fine.
Even Mr. Handbasket loves this little one and can be seen talking to her, and calling her to come lay in his lap to cuddle. Huuuusterical! I'll admit it, I spoil her. She has a ton of toys and a closet full of clothes to rival my own (Chihuahuas are warm hearted and cold blooded... she must have TUTUS WITH SPARKLES! STOP rolling your eyes!).
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| "What do you mean my Hello Kitty dress hasn't been washed yet?!" |
In just over a week, it will be the 1 year anniversary of my being adopted (March 18th) ! Luna has been a joy and I can't imagine not ever having a fur child in the house. Bringing her home was like I had been re-grounded again. It was also like having a toddler in the house! A year flew by as we established routines and bonded. Things calmed down, and Mr. Handbasket and I even managed to take a trip to Vegas and leave Louie with a baby sitter. I didn't worry (much).
I began to work on my buttons a bit. At one point, I decided to put everything in my collection to its material. Tons of buttons were taken from all of my Pictorial cards and resorted to bins to be recarded by material. The process was interrupted several times over the years, but now I was dedicated to really getting with the process. Everything in each Material Section will be organized and carded to the Classification numbers and run in numerical order. It's a loooong process but seems like it will be worth while in the end, as I discover things about my buttons that I overlooked years ago when I first acquired them and I will be able to find specific buttons quickly.
I received a call from a local old button friend in December of 2014. She was looking to purchase a few buttons for her entries for the Arizona button show. She asked if I would help to look at her entries to spot any problems, errors or make suggestions for button to better her chances of winning a ribbon. We make a date for a button day at my house. It was wonderful. I pull out my carded buttons for sale and suggest a few. She encourages me to plug back in to ASBS, get back in my button room, and go to the ASBS show which was coming up. We keep in contact.
She came over again about a month later and we look at her entries and talk the lovely language of buttons for hours, and again she presses me to go to the show. She suggests that I judge with her at the show.
Just a week and a half before the show, I call the judging chair to see if I can go to judging (I have to be a member of AZ) and I send in my check for dues and make plans to go to the Judging as an observer to dip my toes back into the buttony waters. I fear I won't remember anything since it's been so long since I've gone to judging. My friend is already paired to judge with someone by the Judging Chair, and they have 7 teams already, so they really don't need a judge. Whew! I plan to wander silently through the room from table to table to absorb the process and lingo again.
Judging morning I'm told I can I volunteer as a runner. Okay! I can do that!
It was so good to see everyone, some people I hadn't seen in 5 or more years. As judging progressed, I brought a stack to a judging team's table of Clear and Colored glass. The pair of judges look stricken as they see the pile of entries and I tell them what it is. I go grab the C&C glass Classification book and bring it to them. While grabbing the book, the Judging chair tells me that I could assist the team in judging since they weren't well versed in glass, so I took a deep breath, sat down and we dug in. We broke for lunch with only one tray to finish up.
When we returned from lunch, I was told that I was needed to judge... with Gary Brockman. LOL He had just settled in and arrived down to the judging room. He gave me a big hug and we caught up a little bit about life in general since we'd seen each other last. We were handed stacks of the Black Glass Summary awards to judge first. Wowie. If I remember right, there were 8 entries. WELL, That's jumping back in with both feet!!
Fortunately, I had just about finished reworking my entire collection of Black glass according to the NBS Classification, so at least I felt sort of prepared for the award. Judging with Gary was a treat and I was confident he'd spot and count things I'd forgotten and would be the major guide through all of the awards we'd judge. What was nice to hear is he told me that I actually spotted things he missed (the watch crystals on 2 different trays!)! LOL.
It was wonderful to see all the great buttons and incredible effort put in by competitors, but unfortunately ALL entries had errors and were "measled" (disqualified) out of the competition. A measle is a paper sticky dot is put on the area where an error or button that is inappropriate for the award is to notify the competitor.
Summary awards are tricky. They must be mounted in order (a major source of the disqualifications), must be labeled CORRECTLY with AT LEAST the (correct) Classification number that the button is representing. Most trays are disqualified for forgetting to label a single button, mounting out of order, or putting the number in incorrectly. IF information is provided about the button, it has to be correct, unlike labeling any other award where labeling is not required and where mistakes in labeling don't result in a measle/disqualification. If you label information in a Summary Award, you better know your stuff and be sure what you are stating is accurate.
It was sad to go through tray after tray of the black glass entries. Two competitors had put Watch Crystals on their card (this is a Clear/Colored glass button, and the back is made of Pitch over a flat metal back, and it is not black glass). They were easy to spot since there is a version of a "Black Glass Watch Crystal", where the clear reverse painted crystal is set into a black glass button which frames it. Big difference. A pitch back watch crystal never belongs on a Black Glass tray.
One competitor labeled a button as Nailsea decorated glass, but it was only a swirly overlay and didn't have the wonderful precision looped drapes of Nailsea. (I hope this person didn't pay Nailsea prices for that button! Yikes!!). I can't remember for sure that we disqualified this button per se or if it was noted after a disqualification for buttons out of order or another issue on the same tray. Here are some examples of Nailsea style decoration:
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| Antique Master Salt, attributed to Nailsea Glass Works, c. 1780-1800. |
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| Nailsea style decoration on a black glass button. Typical controlled draped loops (which can be white or colors) |
Another entrant put an odd piece of jewelry (or conversion of such) on their card as a button. It was a ring of black glass with a piece of red coral that jutted out over the edges which was mounted to the face of the black glass with silver wire. It clearly had started out life as a watch fob, pin or some other piece of jewelry. Also noted on this same tray was an odd pinshank bead that did not have a black plate. The head of the pin was smaller than what is common on a button. While not all have backplates, it was clear this was never a button. It was noted as questionable and likely a jewelry drop or piece that was converted. Our Classification clearly defines that this isn't allowed and will disqualify a tray.
It was heart breaking not to be able to give a single ribbon for the award, as a Summary is HARD WORK, a Black Glass Summary is enough to send you to a rubber room!! I know... I've done one.
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| Example of a Black Glass Summary Tray I entered in 2002. Note: Rare THREAD BACK black glass! |
The next two days at the Arizona show was a whirl wind of seeing dear button friends from all corners of Arizona and those who come in from other States who'd come in for the show. Many were Button Bytes members as well. I found I talked more than shopped. I made a few new friends at poke boxes (yes, I still can clear out a poke box!) and I came home with several bags of new treasures and over one hundred new buttons!
Oddly enough, my favorite button book's author (Peggy Ann Osborne) had sold some of her collection to one of our out of state dealers. I was beyond thrilled to find some of the buttons I had looked at a million times in her book and now they were going to be in my care! So far, I have been able to identify several of my buttons as pictured in her book About Buttons, A Collector's Guide.
These are a few of my (new from the show) favorite things:
I found some wonderful Leather buttons to add to my collection!
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| French Designer's Set of 6 Snakeskin with brass letters (c. 1955) from Peggy Ann Osborne's collection, which were used in the book About Buttons, page 209. Large size. |
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| Another beautiful button from Ms. Osborne's collection and show in the About Buttons book (shown on page 136). Identified as Carmen the Habanera Gypsy from the Opera of the same name in the book, but I have also seen this identified as Katisha from the Mikado. She has crossed hair sticks (Asian), but also wears large beads around her neck and large hoop earrings (Gypsy). Confusing! Regardless a LOVELY button that I was thrilled to be able to add to my collection! Copper center escutcheon with a Leather background. Size Large. |
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| I have looked for this button for years! Here it is, right from Ms. Osborne's book and collection (About Buttons, page 123). Leather Lion, set in metal, Brass rim, tin back. Backmarked Breveté (Patented) Paris. Size Medium. |
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| Unusual black Patent Leather button with stitched border. Wonderful painted metal Art Nouveau head. Large. I'm unsure if the head, which appears to be silvered brass was painted later, perhaps in order to conceal the head and be re-used on later styled clothing (a common practice back then, much to today's button collector's dismay!). This may well be one of my favorite Leather buttons now! |
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| Leather modern button with a sewn edge. Metal Leaf pinned brad center. Probably C. 1950-60. Medium. A poke box button that just had to come home with me. |
I purchased TONS more buttons, but I'll leave that to the next time I post and do a a bit more show and tell then.
Also, I owe a BIG thanks to my long time button friend Randi Sweet, who always makes me feel like I know a little bit more about buttons than I really do and who continued to poke at me and finally kicked me in the arse to rejoin Arizona/go to the judging/go the show.
She's reminded me not only how much I love the the research, history and classification of these little treasures, but opened my eyes up again to the REAL treasure of this hobby... which are all the wonderful friends we make along the way. Randi is a rare good soul and I'm lucky she shares the same enthusiasm I have about buttons. I'm fortunate that she wants to spend some slices of her precious time with me. She's one of the best parts of my button collection.
I'm also back on Button Bytes (though pretty much just lurking right now to get back in the swing of things) and I've had a few fun email conversations with some people from the group. Some of these great folks I've known since about 1998 when I first joined Button Bytes and attended my first NBS show in Scottsdale in 1999.
Maybe next year, I'll go to Nationals. Hmmmm.
The addiction continues...
Vicky
