My daughter is, among other things, a collector.  On her desk is a wicker basket filled with buttons that once were stowed in several glass jam jars.  She and I found those filled jars at a local antique store, and snapped them up at $4 each.  The $35 dollar pack of about 30 buttons—very nice vintage buttons of collectible value, I’m sure–was beyond our budget, but $4?  We couldn’t resist, especially when we’d pay that much for just a few modern plastic buttons at the local craft store.

Underneath the basket on my daughter’s desk is a round metal Mrs. Steven’s candy tin.  The lettering on its lid dates the tin to probably the 1940′s or 50’s.  That, too, is filled with buttons that my mom recently mailed to my daughter from Canada—a collection that was started by my mother’s grandmother many years ago.  Back in the Great Depression years, if a garment wore out, the buttons were cut off and saved for another use.  An early form of recycling.

Opening the tin reveals a bright mosaic of colors.  There are small, ordinary looking plastic buttons of all hues, as well as military-style ones of tarnished metal.  Swirls of round, clear plastic glint alongside big, yellow fabric buttons that probably date from the 60’s.  I see those on a swingy, daffodil yellow hip-length coat.  I can’t help but think of all the fashion styles that have come and gone that are represented in that tin.  And all the buttons that quietly connect my mother’s grandmother—a woman I know only through grainy old photographs–to my teenage daughter.

My daughter has enjoyed sorting through all of the buttons and picking out her favorites.  Some she has put aside for funky bracelets she makes for friends at school.  Others will brighten up hair ornaments she renders out of scrap fabric, feathers, beads, and sparkly gemstones.  Still others are so unique to her, she’s reserved them to enjoy just as buttons.  A great idea.  The buttons are proof that there’s beauty in the smallest of everyday objects.

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There must be some collectors among our JQ blog friends!  What do you collect?