Art glass studio buttons: flamework (aka lampwork) by Marie-Christine Mahe

We are introducing a series of art glass studio buttons, mostly paperweights, to enhance all your wearable art. The technique used is flamework (aka lampwork in the UK). These buttons are made from borosilicate glass (Pyrex), which is not only much stronger than the usual soft glass but also much lighter, and therefore much more suitable for textiles of all sorts, whether knit or woven. They have integrated glass loops in the back to hold better. If you've been disappointed with the functionality of glass buttons before, you owe it to yourself to try these.

I recently 'fell' for this new art form, almost by chance after a class at The Crucible, a fire-works studio in Oakland. Completely taken in by the possibilities of flow :-), I've continued studying privately with Jay Bridgland, and naturally came to focus on this intersection of the new passion with my long-abiding love of textiles.

It's obviously hard for a mere image to give a good idea of what these buttons looks like - I like to use a lot of clear glass, and make efforts to give them visual depth, so they're a lot more interesting in the hand than on the screen. There can be some interplay with the underlying fabric's color much of the time. We welcome inquiries by designers.

We scan large pictures of all buttons at 200% magnification, so you can see every detail. But small display sizes are standardized - please pay attention to sizes listed! Here is an example of the scan of one button:

And here's the same button held up to the light:

Here is a small sample of buttons available for sale, keeping in mind that we update the stock frequently:

We take payments mostly by Paypal, we're a Fuzzy Galore boutique and have all the same terms for orders. Please send email if you'd like to commission a set in a particular design or colorways, or to see whether we have one available that's not online yet.

Button Collectors

[ Join Now | Ring Hub | Random | << Prev | Next >> ]