We’ve decided to make November inspir­a­tion month here at UnRuley Articles. In keep­ing with the theme I wanted to kick things off with a nod to the neck­lace that star­ted it all for me.

On an Autumn day in 2008 my col­league and soon to be BFF, Jane, wore a chunky red but­ton neck­lace to work. Unlike any­thing I’d seen before, it was styl­ish and quirky and it had me at ‘Hello’.

Where It All Began

Jane’s neck­lace was the spark that ignited my fas­cin­a­tion with the concept of but­tons as more than just a fasten­ing device. Never could I have guessed that two years later I’d be mak­ing my own but­ton jew­el­ery, bravely selling them to the unbuttoned masses. And that Jane would be one of my best customers.

Thank You Big Red Button Necklace

You might be sur­prised to learn that the ini­tial inspri­ation was a slow burn. As I men­tioned above, it took almost two years for me to get into jew­el­ery mak­ing. The ori­gins of UnRuley Articles has more to do with me find­ing a lot of time on my hands  than it does with divine inspir­a­tion. But back to the beginning…

I almost didn’t buy my first bag of but­tons. Riddled with buyer’s guilt after an impuls­ive shop­ping spree two weeks before at the Birmingham Craft Fair with Ben’s mum (obvi­ously I blame her for my inab­il­ity to con­trol my bead buy­ing frenzy) I resigned myself to deny­ing the pur­chase of any fur­ther jew­el­ery sup­plies until I found a job, won the lotto, robbed a bank, etc…

My Addiction

While Ben thought­fully selec­ted a choice few squares of Fimo I walked for­lornly past the shiny pack­ets of but­tons. Pacing. Wringing my hands, con­tem­plat­ing the prom­ises of future but­ton glory. Of course, Ben knew I wanted those but­tons. He’s clever that way.

So, laden with his care­fully selec­ted blocks of Fimo, my darling hus­band says to me, ‘Why don’t you get a bag of but­tons?’ To which I reply, ‘No, honey. I can’t. I’ve already spent double (well triple… okay quad­ruple) my share on beads…’ This goes on for about five minutes. Until finally he takes the two bags of but­tons I’d been eye­ing to the register, along with the tiny crochet needle, and buys them for me. Of course, what he hadn’t worked out is that, like any addic­tion, indul­ging it just makes it worse!

Many bags of but­tons later, the rest, as they say, is history.

So thank you, chunky red but­ton necklace!