Bead & Button Magazine

Description

Bead & Button Magazine

Beads, small perforated objects, usually spherical, that may be strung into necklaces and bracelets or attached to clothing or furnishings. The word bead is derived from Middle English bede, meaning prayer, and was originally applied to prayer beads, or rosaries. Beads are made of a variety of materials: seeds, wood, ivory, bone, horn, shell, coral, pearl, jet, amber, gemstones, metals, ceramics, and plastics. They were worn in the Stone Age - and still are in traditional communities-as amulets or charms, probably because magical properties were attributed to the materials of which they were made. Beads have also been worn since early times for decoration. Easily portable, they have, in addition, been objects of exchange.

Archaeological finds reveal that a variety of gold bead necklaces were worn in ancient Mesopotamia and India. Egyptian nobles favored wide collars of colored gemstone, ceramic, or glass beads. Byzantine courtiers and Mughal Indian nobility wore ropes of pearls. In Europe, pearls and also glass beads, manufactured since the 13th century, were popular both for jewelry and embroidery. Women wore strings of pearls, first real, later artificial, a fashion that continued into the 20th century. Hundreds of tiny glass beads or seed pearls were embroidered on dresses, church vestments, small pictures, boxes, and baskets or were strung and knitted into ladies' purses or used as fringe on dresses and lampshades.

Native North Americans and tribal Africans wore strings of small beads and embroidered beads on their clothes and bags as, for example, the skin tunics of the Inuit and the aprons of the Ndebele. Africans also trimmed headdresses with beads and covered vessels and stools with them. In addition, beads were used for money as, for example, shell wampum on the east coast of North America. Originally the beads were made from natural materials such as shell; subsequently they were replaced by glass beads obtained from European traders.

Button (fastener) (French bouton,bud or knob), small knob or disk used for fastening or ornamenting clothing. Buttons are usually attached by sewing through holes in the disk or through a shank attached to the back. When used as fastening, they are pushed through loops or slits, called buttonholes. Precious metals, gems, and ivory have been used for buttons, but most buttons are made of such materials as wood, glass, mother-of-pearl, bone, horn, brass, pewter, and plastics. Worn as ornaments since the Bronze Age, buttons were sometimes used as fasteners by the Greeks and Romans. They became popular in Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries when form-fitted clothing came into fashion. In the 16th century, wearing buttons became a means of displaying wealth, and many buttons were set with diamonds and other gems. In the 18th century fine, handcrafted buttons were made of painted porcelain, tortoiseshell inlay, ivory, and engraved gems. Embroidered and brass buttons were also popular. Buttons in the late 20th century are primarily mass-produced in plastic. The collecting of fine buttons or of modern campaign or advertising buttons furnished with pins is a popular hobby.

With the use of beads and buttons, we can make several pieces of decorations and ornaments for different occasions. They may be used for personal accessories or for house decors. It is fun mixing and matching these stuffs to be able to produce good quality and nice ornaments. This journal includes easy to follow steps on how to make good bead-button combination. Also, enclosed are different samples to pattern your ideas.

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Last updated on Feb 20, 2010.