OUR CULTURE
The World Button Association began with a handful of button enthusiasts to create a sense of community
among collectors, artisans, historians, fashionistas and simply anyone who is curious and enjoys buttons.
The World Button Association promotes a culture of respect and camaraderie where all are welcome who honor the
mission and vision of the organization. We embrace all aspects of buttons including research and their use in industry and the arts.
among collectors, artisans, historians, fashionistas and simply anyone who is curious and enjoys buttons.
The World Button Association promotes a culture of respect and camaraderie where all are welcome who honor the
mission and vision of the organization. We embrace all aspects of buttons including research and their use in industry and the arts.
THE BOARD
The collective knowledge of the founding board exceeds more than 150 years of collecting, researching, and creating
with buttons. We all can expand our knowledge by sharing and documenting what we know about buttons
so future generations will have an extensive resource. This is the legacy of WBA.
with buttons. We all can expand our knowledge by sharing and documenting what we know about buttons
so future generations will have an extensive resource. This is the legacy of WBA.
Like many collectors, my first contact with buttons came when I was a child. Each year during summer vacation my family’s tradition was to drive to some destination on the other side of the country. Whenever my mother saw a sign along the roadway that said buttons were being sold, we’d stop. She and I would then go into the store and rifle through whatever containers held those beauties.
My mother was not a collector. Her objective was to gather mostly glass buttons of specific colors to make bracelets. I often wonder what treasures we left behind in those boxes. At the time I thought if I ever saw another button it would be too soon. Times sure have changed! Precious are the buttons we receive in unexpected ways; the button a friend gave us, the one we found in some out of the way antique store, and the ones passed down through charm strings and button tins. We hold history in our hands. We meet interesting people on our journey of discovery. We marvel at the way buttons adorned clothing in bygone eras. Over the last 30 years I’ve made memories and friends and there can never be enough of those, or buttons. General antiques dealer 1967-1975; professional antique postcard dealer 1975-2015; button collector, researcher, teacher, speaker, writer 1989-present. Button judge since 1990 at state and national levels. Oregon State Button Society Chair of Classification and Judges for 15 years and president for 4 years; president of the Portland Button Club 4 years.
National Button Society, Director 3 years; Div. III (buttons made after 1918) Chair for 8+ years; member of the NBS Classification Committee for 8+ years; founding co-chair of the Western Regional Button Association; Chair of Judges for Idaho State Button Society 2006. Chaired NBS committee to revise the synthetic polymers classification system and co-authored the National Button Society's Synthetic Polymers Handbook. Co-author of the Clear and Colored Glass Handbook. Author of PLASTIC BUTTONS: How to Identify Using All Six Senses, BUTTON MATERIALS A-Z: Identification Guide and WBA's Introduction to Button Collecting. Chris Shreve has been an active button collector since 1992 when she attended a Michigan Button Society show. Over the years, Chris has enjoyed finding pre-1900s glass buttons as well as buttons of an assortment of materials depicting dogs.
Susan Weston Smith (known as Susie) says working in the volunteer world is her passion. Susie served as Publicity Chair and on the Nominating Committee of the National Button Society and is an active member in the Ottawa Valley Button Club meetings and events.
When not playing with her buttons she says she keeps out of trouble as the production editor of an online magazine thousandislandslife.com. She is also the author of the First Summer People, Thousand Islands 1650-1910, Boston Mills Press, 1993. Susie has an interest in fashion, the role buttons play in the past and today, and hosts the Button Runway once a month. Be sure to check out our Event Page to see the next presentation. A button collector for more than 25 years, Pam also enjoys traveling, pottery and is an award winning quilter. She is keen on researching buttons based on history, art, and materials.
Member Texas State Button Society, Fort Worth Button Club, and British Button Society. Pam is the current webmaster for WBA. Lynn has been collecting buttons for over 30 years. She currently serves as Secretary of the Connecticut State Button Society and is the former Secretary of the North East Regional Button Association (NERBA). Lynn was Show Coordinator for the Unconventional Convention and served as a member of the NBS Board of Directors. She has presented on Golden Age buttons at local, state and national levels. Lynn collects animal-themed buttons as well as Golden Age, livery, horn, Arita, Satsuma and steel buttons. She enjoys the continuous learning opportunities and camaraderie that arise from collecting buttons.
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I’ve been sewing and using buttons since elementary school and collecting buttons seriously since 1993. Technological changes now allow us immediate access to old buttons and the rich history they share.
Long after our clothing has disintegrated to dust, the buttons which held it remain—whether snipped for frugal reuse or to save their beauty. A pink plastic button worn for decades on a mother’s house dress can instantly bring tears to the eyes of her daughter when it tumbles from the sewing box. Memories of every smile, opinion, and scent flood the heart. What else can powerfully bring back the humming of hymns while dishes are washed, strong hands kneading bread, the smell of loamy soil tamped over vegetable seeds, and the giggles while capturing earthworms? However a button was worn, it was handled hundreds if not thousands of times. It was salvaged for reuse again and again, waiting in a button box until plucked for its next life. Most mothers no longer sew, and button boxes are vanishing. Buttons hold our clothing: they also hold our history. For centuries buttons have touched us from birth until we are placed in the ground. Language is not needed to convey the button’s intimate role in our daily lives, whether lived in a hut or a salon of leisure. We are honored to celebrate this global button connection. Maureen is the new President of the British Button Society and handles all of its website enquiries with the help of a specialist team.
With a background in science and in archaeology she moved into sales in industrial and lately medical fields. After an interruption to be a mum she returned to work with her husband in sales administration as an agent for the DuPont company of America. She was also a keen fell walker and trained as a yoga teacher. Finding herself at a loose end when they moved home she turned to antique fairs and became interested in antique and vintage textiles and accessories. Then came the day when some pearl buttons came into her hands and she was hooked. Finally after 15 years at the textile fairs, she abandoned all for buttons and buckles only. What followed was 11 years of selling buttons at wool festivals for rare breeds, which mainly finished with COVID. Currently she has been downsizing her collection dating from the Millennium with an Etsy site and trying to help with background information when available on the buttons that she offers for sale. History and usage is one of her interests, especially of British makers. Though Maureen confesses to a weakness for Satsumas, too, so it’s inclusive of other world makers. My name is Cathy Buresch and I currently live between Concord and Newland, NC, depending on the season of the year. I was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, and spent the first 40 years of my life there. Then in 1996 I uprooted my husband Brian and daughter Noel, and we moved to NC as I was recruited by IBM.
I learned to sew early as my grandmothers and mother sewed everything from clothing to curtains but my preference has always been quilting, which is how I became interested in button collecting. I was invited to a button show program on “Charm Strings” by two close friends who just happen to own my favorite quilt shop. I attended and was hooked. I’ve always had an interest in antiques, and button collecting seemed like a natural step in combining my two favorite hobbies. 28 years of collecting later . . . I’ve held every office for the 350+ membership of the Charlotte Quilters Guild and the same for the North Carolina State Button Society. Now retired from my official career, I have more time for family, friends, community service AND button selection, sorting, cleaning and research. I look forward to supporting WBA! Simone Carbonneau-Kincaid is a retired archaeologist, northwest historian, author, bookseller, and a button collector for over 45 years. After a chance visit to a button display in a local bank in 1979, she joined the local Historical Button Club, the Idaho State Button Society and the National Button Society as a lifetime member. She has served many offices in both the local and state organizations, has been assistant editor of the National Button Bulletin and is currently the editor of the ISBS Bulletin and host of the Historical Button Club online presentations. She has co-authored the new Black Glass Buttons: A Handbook for Collectors, several button booklets, and many articles.
Today, she is retired and enjoying her lifelong hobby of collecting antique buttons. She shares and promotes her hobby with her community through button presentations and displays, and happily recruiting new button enthusiasts at any opportunity. |