I gave a two hour workshop for the Moonlight Weaver’s Guild on Tuesday on making buttons. I went over a few basic techniques: conditioning clay, buttonholes, wire shanks, using cutters and textures, etc, then turned everyone loose.
It was wonderful to work with such a creative group of people. I answered questions and added information, but everyone went off and did their own thing, often trying things I hadn’t even thought of applying to buttons.
I think everyone at least tried the mica powders. They seem to speak to everyone – our inner magpie speaks up and goes, “Oooh, sparkly!”
They made some really interesting shapes, and they used fiber techniques such as woven clay, braided clay, and these cool twisted and coiled knots. There were butterflies and hearts and roses and abstract shapes using interchanged cut outs. It was a lot of fun and you can see some of what they made below:
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