Way back in 2012, not long after I joined the Etsy community, I stumbled on an Etsy shop that sold the most beautiful jewelry featuring vintage and antique buttons. Since my first purchase, I've been back again and again for more until now I have quite the collection of pieces from that shop! Today I have the opportunity to share with you an interview with the owner, designer, and seller of the shop Timeless Trinkets – Marcella Blankenship.
While she makes and sells other types of beaded jewelry in her shop, my special interest in the interview today is to discuss her button designs, since I'm a fellow vintage/antique button enthusiast and love the way she so tastefully gives them a brand new life. The buttons she uses range from quirky or colorfully hand painted, to exquisite gilded or iridescent glass, to intricate antique embossed buttons. I always have an endless and growing wishlist from her shop! I'm excited to show you her beautiful work, and to have to meet her.
VVS: Welcome to the blog, Marcella! Please tell us a bit about yourself.
M: I’m married with 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. I like to sew, garden - flowers are lovely - and make jewelry!
VVS: How did you get started designing jewelry?
M: It’s kind of a long story. While I was in college I was very much into retro fashion and clothing. I would visit the Senior Citizens thrift store and buy my dresses and hats. I would also take old broken brooches and convert them into necklaces. I had a few pieces I had made from watch parts. My mother worked as a wholesaler in the fashion jewelry business and it was my job to fix and repair broken jewelry that had been returned; I have always been exposed to fashion and jewelry in some form. After college I got married and started a family and that was my full time job for quite a while. When my youngest child was born I had very long hair and used hair sticks to keep it pinned up in a twist. While shopping online for them one day, I thought, “I can make those!” At that time Etsy was just starting up and I had friend who makes tatted lace and wanted to open a shop. So, we decided to open one together. All of this was very new to us and for about a year I sold just hair sticks. This friend also knew I liked making jewelry with vintage items, buttons, and watch parts and she introduced me to the Steampunk trend. She was the one who suggested that I try making jewelry with my buttons and watch parts and sell it on Etsy. It was kind of on a whim, but that’s how Timeless Trinkets was started. I eventually closed the hair stick shop and focused only on making jewelry.
VVS: Mounting them into jewelry is such a great way to showcase beautiful and fragile buttons and give them a new lease on life. Where did you get the idea to turn buttons into jewelry?
M: I’m really not sure, other than I had used them in brooch designs when I was younger, making collages with buttons and watch parts using a hot glue gun. I knew I wanted to make more professional looking pieces that would last longer and be more versatile. It was a very long process of finding the right settings and glue. International orders were very tricky in that the glue would contract at such low temperatures in flight and the jewelry would come apart sometimes. Even now I take time to look for new suppliers when it comes to settings that will accommodate the shank of the glass buttons and those of collectable antique ones.
VVS: Where do you find the buttons you use for your lovely creations, and how do you decide how you are going to style them?
M: When I first started 10 years ago, I bought a bunch of buttons off of e-Bay. A lot of these were part of estate sales and would come by the box full. I still have too many of those buttons, I don’t know if I will ever use them all. I also shopped antique malls for items to use. The glass buttons I will buy from Etsy sellers. For many years I bought from a lady in Germany whose family owned a glass factory and she was selling stock that had been in the warehouse since the war. Glass buttons were very popular at one time and many countries like Germany and the Czech Republic made them. Along came the war and fashion wasn’t too important. Many factories closed and the button blanks were boxed up and stored. Later, plastic was easy to make and more durable in the washing machine, so the glass buttons became useless.
VVS: What is your favorite part of what you do?
M: Hmmm, that’s a hard question. I like all of it. My favorite designs are the more elaborate ones that have a beaded chain. I like the challenge of combining colors that complement the buttons.
VVS: Do you have a favorite piece you've made?
M: I have a couple. There’s a piece pictured on my store banner that is a favorite of mine. I’m not sure why I don’t keep them, but I really like making things that give other people joy and so when they buy something that’s a favorite of mine, it makes me smile. I hope they find as much joy wearing it and I did making it.
VVS: How do you date the buttons you use, determining which are “vintage” and which are “antique”?
M: With the metal buttons, it’s easy to know the general time of production. They have very defined manufacturing techniques and there are of lots of button collector books you use as a reference. The glass buttons are harder. Lately, I have seen a lot of Czech art glass buttons for sale. These buttons are sold as vintage, but the quality of them is perfect and they seem new. Some of these buttons could be vintage and are the ones that have been put in storage for 50 plus years, but I don’t think so. When in doubt, I usually label the button as art glass made from vintage molds. One nice thing about these buttons is that they still use the metal molds that are over 75 years old and they are handmade. So, even if the button is new, its design is old.
My very first pair of Timeless Trinkets earrings - still a favorite!
VVS: Do you wear your jewelry yourself?
M: Yes, I do!
Well, I just can't see how she can sell many of them, they're all so pretty! Lockets and bracelets, sets, various styles of necklaces and earrings...I often visit her shop when I have a bit of spending money and want to treat myself. But she keeps putting up new ones so my wishlist grows much faster than my purchases!
My growing collection of earrings...
This necklace I had put on an Etsy list of things I hoped to buy, then one day it was marked “sold”. I was bummed, but didn't think more about it until I opened a Christmas gift that year from my mother and found the necklace inside! She had secretly looked at my Etsy list and made her gift purchases from it. Needless to say, I was very happy!
I was wearing my latest pair of Timeless Trinkets earrings for the photos for this post, and have a nautical necklace waiting in the wings for the perfect 1950s pairing one of these days. So pretty!
I hope you've enjoyed discovering Marcella and her work, and love her jewelry as much as I do. I have to admit I had no idea it was such a process to find and pair the right elements! Now I'm off to browse her shop and wish I could get a dozen more of my favorites...
Since she's having a 20% off sale until December 1, now might be the time to snap up some of the more tempting pieces!
