BUTTON BOOKS

Made by members of the Cincinnati Book Arts Society

for an online classJuly 2020

Dee Bruggeman Flower Stamps 2” Handmade and marbled papers, cardboard button, Easter Seal stamps, ribbon

Amy CrawfordLam's Garden Takeout2”Wooden buttons, paper, ribbon

I used a Chinese takeout menu from my fav restaurant for the pages and on the box lid was my fortune cookie fortune. 

Jo Diamantes 1 cent+ Button Book 2” Wooden buttons, postage stamps, paper

1 cent+ Button Book acquired this name as it was made using stamps ranging in price from .01 to $1.00.

Jo Diamantes Happy Words 1 1/2" Wooden buttons painted to coordinate with scrap paste paper pages, Tyvek

Encouraging words written on pages with Micron (pen.

Jo Diamantes Tangled Book 2” Wooden buttons, paper, ribbon

These pages were made from original tangles, and the box from paper onto which a tangle had been enlarged and copies.

Jo Diamantes Tangled 1 1/2" Plastic buttons, tangles photocopied onto paper, Tyvek

The pages create a collage of photocopied tangles done over several years.

Judy Dominic Sea Shell Pieces cover 1 3/8” x 2”, pages 3/4” x 1” Sea shells, paper, ribbon

I have an ever-growing collection of sea shells in various states of fullness. I love how they weather the vagaries of the ocean. I also love being at the ocean to see them. These two seemed to fit nicely together - and the opening line from the John Masefield poem “Sea Fever” echoed my sentiments.

Carol Freid We Move in Circles 4” Wooden button, cotton coasters, ink, stamp, tape, stickers

Statement: We Move in Circles is a roundelay, a dance, a song, a movement marked by time, a repetition of story, events and the circle of life. Today I see the patterns of life in circles converging, connecting, disconnecting, moving, floating and standing on the brink of stillness.

Carol Freid Sun in the Negev 1 5/8” Wooden button, lithograph image on paper Reeves BFK, ink, cotton thread

Statement: I lived and worked for two years in Israel, in the Negev and in Eliat on the Red Sea. Sunrise was the beginning of my day and sunset was the end of my day. The sun, moon, stars, Red Sea and desert were my companions in this strange and beautiful land. My life was like living in a bubble dancing on a terrain of great beauty and history.

Cody Goodin A Taste of Thailand 2” Wooden buttons, polymer clay cabochons finished with mica pigments, paper, Tyvek

The content was  based on a snack box I got with a variety of snacks popular in Thailand. I used some face cabs here depicting the sun (front cover) and moon (back cover)

Janice Kagermeier Dog Park 1 3/16” Plastic and shell buttons, paper, Tyvek, vintage ring box

On one side are sketches of several dog breeds from the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd edition, unabridged. On the other side are names of dogs in my life: either my own, family and friends’ dogs or ones met in the dog park.

Janice Kagermeier Doodles 1 ⅛” Vintage bakelite buttons, paper, ribbon, vintage ring box

My first button book. Both sides are scanned from a sketchbook of doodles. End papers are scraps of paste paper made in a CBAS workshop.

Janice Kagermeier Grandmother’s Flower Garden 2” Wooden buttons, paper, Tyvek

More than 10 years ago I won a beautiful quilt at a fundraiser. The blocks, in the Grandmother’s Flower Garden pattern, had been hand sewn by Betty Burgin nearly 70 years before. They were assembled and hand quilted by ladies in the quilting group at the Hyde Park Center for Older Adults, all but one of whom have since died. On one side of the book are photos of some of the quilt blocks, on the other, between the names of the quilters, I’ve drawn in colored pencil some of the flowers I remember from my own (alas, non-quilter) maternal grandmother’s garden. The container shape is called a pillow box.

Janice Kagermeier Rise 1 ¼” Vintage plastic buttons, paper, Tyvek

On one side of this button book I’ve drawn in colored pencil the (not very visible in this photo) phases of the moon. On the reverse I’ve written the third verse from Maya Angelou’s 1978 poem “Still I Rise.”

Marguerite Katchen Buttons and Old Postage Stamps 2” Wooden buttons, paper, cancelled postage stamps, grosgrain ribbon

Several CBAS members took an online button book class this summer. I decided to decorate mine with stamps, something Jo also did later. The idea for the stamps was to have something to place in the Off Ludlow Gallery exhibit next summer.

Marguerite Katchen Wooden Covered Prints 2” x 3” Wooden cover, paper, ribbon

I printed out some of my own artwork and affixed the tiny sized prints to the cardstock used for the paper of the book. The pages are connected with tan 3/4" cotton grosgrain ribbon.

Anne Leader: Despair is a Kind of Hope: A Muti Girdle Book 2” Buttons, lithograph print on Rives BFK, embroidery thread

This girdle book is inspired by a resonance between my time in apartheid South Africa and our current political climate. The pages are cut from a lithograph I made that depicted the texture of the landscape, the poem a reflection of both then and now, and the purpose: “Muti” is a Zulu word for (herbal) “medicine” as a remedy, protection, healing. It allows me to recall that process of finding a mode of survival in an alienating political world in the midst of beauty.

Claire Marcus Button Harvest 1 ¼” Vintage bakelite button, ceramic button, fabric rosettes, DMC metallic thread, ribbon, relief printed Masu box lid

Returning to family textile-arts heritage with these rosettes, stitched with fabrics that hold memories.

Claire Marcus Fan/Fiction 4.5" Relief printed paper, circular fan structures, toile and other print fabric rosettes, metallic thread, ribbons

A scale experiment combining circular paper and fabric structures.

A scale experiment combining circular paper and fabric structures

Charlotte Reed Artificial 1 ½” Kool-Aid dyed felted wool cover, mother of pearl button, handmade paper, Tyvek

Since we live in a mixed world of natural and synthetic materials I enjoy experimenting with the contrast of these elements. From the natural mother of pearl manufactured into a button and industrial drink mix used to dye natural fibers, they seem to reflect our ever growing dependence on the synthetic,  even as we long for the natural world.

Charlotte Reed Just Button Your Lip 2" Handmade kozo and celery paper, Indigo dyed flax and cotton, handmade abaca and daylily paper

Artist Statement: Working with all the different fibers led me to look at sayings related to textiles. Choosing these phrases related to buttons and weaving worked perfectly with the structure of the book, but also relate to my feelings about the dispersion of information these days, especially through social media.

Liz Scheuer Button Book 1” Shell buttons, paper, ribbon Diameter - 1”

Each page of this Button Book was cut from a Zentangle that I drew and shows some of the many tangle patterns. The button covers are old shell buttons from my grandmother’s button basket. Her love of making things lives on in me.

Carolyn StewartPretty Hats All in a Row 2”Wooden button, scrapbook card stock, gingham fern pattern ribbon

Carole Winters Syd 1 1/4” Vintage Art Deco button, paper, Tyvek, plastic container

This button accordion book was made with etching proofs and photos of Syd Barrett, an early member of Pink Floyd. Barrett was celebrated for his creativity, beauty, and “losing his mind” at the age of 22.

The photos are stills from a rather famous video clip of Barrett from 1967.

A follow-up note from Carole Winters about her book Syd:

“I posted photos of the Syd Barrett button book on the Syd Barrett Fan Page and someone wrote a poem about it. So I made an origami box and put the poem in the lid. Interesting collaboration.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn is an early Pink Floyd album. “