Vintage Button Brooch

We’re going to Ireland at the weekend and it just happens to be Eileen’s [Colin’s mum] Birthday. So I decided it would be nice to make her a brooch from some of my vintage buttons.

I’ve been collecting and hoarding these lovely pastel shades with star shapes cut into them and they’ll do the job definitely! I’ve selected four of them – all different colours in a sequence of small to large and the plan is to set them in silver in this exact sequence. As this is the first brooch of this type that I’m making it’s a bit of a prototype and I’m hoping it’s not going to go horribly wrong as I’ve not thought of a Plan B present.

Silver Vintage Button Brooch

So, just like I’ve been making my silver button earrings, I created four separate bezels settings for each button. I then cut a long strip of silver that would act as a brooch back and hold all four of the bezel settings together. I soldered a length of wire onto one end which will be bent to form a hook. On the other end I soldered a short length of silver tubing that will hold the brooch pin once I’ve made it and added it at the end.

Silver Vintage Button Brooch Silver Vintage Button Brooch

And here’s when I made my mistake! I placed the brooch back onto the four bezel settings and didn’t really think about the placement of them before I began to solder everything together. My intention was to keep all the four bezel settings separate so that I could set each of the buttons individually and have a lovely burnished edge around each. But without thinking I place the bezel settings together totally disregarding the first soldered join I had made on each and in two instances these fused with this final soldering process.

This meant that between the smallest button and the 2nd smallest button there is a join and I couldn’t push the bezel around each individual button. The same happened on the next join a long, butin a less pronounced way. The two largest buttons are not joined and I was able to push the silver around them as intended. So I’ve learnt a lesson there and will pay more attention to the placement of my bezel settings next time around.

Here is the finished brooch, front and back.

Silver Vintage Button Brooch Silver Vintage Button Brooch

Despite the cock-up, I still think it’s a lovely brooch and very pleased with the way it turned out. It’s a step forward from my button earrings and will take a little practice to get perfect, but I know the next one I make will be loads better.