Buttons contemporary jewellery

www.buttons.co.nz

How did the idea of buttons.co.nz come about?
The idea for ‘buttons’ came out of the desire to build a hall for our children’s school on the south coast of Wellington. We were having our annual fair and our usual brainstorming for new and interesting stalls, when the idea of button necklaces came up. We all did a bit of rummaging round in the op shops and our cupboards, then came together with our collections of buttons and loads of ideas.
The stall was a huge success and more importantly we loved it and enjoyed working together.

What do you enjoy most about running buttons?
We all have such fond memories of our own mother’s and grandmother’s button jars, bags and boxes and we share this memory with so many others.

It’s been an amazing progression from a few buttons simply threaded together to the intricate work we do now, and the cohesive collection we’ve developed. Our first necklaces we made bear no resemblance to our current collection. We love the entire process of making our jewellery. The huge fun there is in gathering the buttons, the fact that we are creating something beautiful out of lovely old thing, even the envelopes we make as our packaging are made from gorgeous old wallpaper. As a group we have all brought such different skills and strengths together. Luckily for us they are all very complimentary and we are still having fun… It’s a great feeling.

When did you set up buttons online?
After working with our current retail stockists around New Zealand for almost 2 years, taking buttons online seemed the next logical step to take. Luckily we had friends who were extremely talented and patient in this area and helped us develop and build our site… It has been a long process and huge learning curve and we are thrilled to have been up and running for about for 4 weeks now.

Our next challenge is to spread the word around the world!

Are you involved much in the crafting community in Wellington / NZ?
We love the local craft scene.Its so fantastic and inspiring to see what other people are creating . One of our local stockists (Mindy @Juniper ) runs stitching evenings at her store. It is so great that these traditional skills are being kept alive, shared and then given a new twist. We are always searching for new inspiration and new skills to learn. Given our diverse day jobs we are bound to come across something to share and then the next idea will be born and we’ll go on from there.. It’s a very natural progression for us… we can’t wait.