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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.

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.

Debbie Allnutt, President

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.

Jocelyn Howells, Director

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.

Allie Nelson, Secretary

I got involved with button collecting around 2004 when I was 10 years old. My mom found a local button club in California, and we joined together. At the time, I was mostly just interested in realistic and horse buttons and didn’t care as much about terminology.

In 2024, I had been volunteering at Austin Creative Reuse for a while, and when they found out I used to collect buttons, they asked if I’d be their button specialist and organize and price all their button donations. After that, I got back into collecting. As an adult, I’ve loved learning more about the history and terminology of buttons and joined the Austin, Texas, national, and now world button clubs.

I’m also a freelance wedding photographer and videographer. My dad did wedding photography growing up, and so I learned from him and later attended UT Austin for Radio, TV, and Film. I now run my own business focusing on weddings, events, and portraits.

Susan Weston Smith, Director

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.

Lynn Keller, Director, Parliamentarian

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.

Joy Journeay, Treasurer

​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.

Cathy Buresch, Director

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, Director

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.

Pam Luke, Director

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.