Button Workshop in a Bedroom Stage II

Thanks to a wonderful friend for his carpentry skills, again, and free used plywood, I now have shelves over the other side of my desk. A shelf attached to the shelves on either side makes more shelf space above my window.

This is a work in progress to make a small space in a small bedroom work efficiently to make buttons to sell on my Etsy shop.

The second photo shows how small this bedroom really is. I had to back myself into the far corner of my bed to get a photo of the wall where my studio lives. Large plastic tubs are stacked at the foot of the bed holding large quantities of button parts.

My bulletin board had to be moved to fit the shelves against the wall. I took everything off of it and put up just the cool stuff, like my ACEO collection all purchased from Etsy Artists, some of the business cards and decorated envelopes, bookmarks and other items Etsy sellers enclose when you buy cool stuff from them. Some of the buttons I have bought from my fellow button makers on Etsy also live on the bulletin board. I love trading buttons with other button makers.

Etsy Front Page

If you were up very early and turned on your computer before the coffee and checked etsy right away like I do, you may have seen one of my buttons on the front page.

Lucky for me the creator sent me a convo to tell me to quick look.

This Etsy Treasury titled "Inspired by Night" was created by Mon Atelier.

She has another shop called Carolina's Creations.

Thanks Carol for letting me know or else I may have missed the moment.

Stray Cat Strut Treasury

If you love red like I do you'll love this Etsy treasury called Stray Cat Strut designed by Space Age Love.

My Tiny English Stray Cats button was included in the treasury. Honestly I do not know how that button has not sold yet. It's one of my favorites. Maybe I am meant to keep it.

Check out the awesome pot holders at Space Age. I might get some myself. Nothing like a clean, new potholder.

Space Age also makes very nice aprons.

All Aboard Etsy Treasury

Here's a cute treasury by Suzi's Corner Boutique. Colorful and filled with action. Toot! Toot!

If you want that vintage train set, please, please, make an offer. I need the space. I am running 2 Etsy Shops out of my bedroom. Plus I also do freelance work.

Hop a train and get on over to Wild Goose Chase and take a look at the pictures of the train set. If you need more photos, let me know. I have plenty more.

Need luggage for the train trip? Check out Suzi's shop. She has vintage train cases and much more.

Fabric Buttons Coming Soon

Well, it's about time we took out this button press.

This machine has a funny story. Many years ago my brother was at a yard sale where a woman was discussing buying this machine. My brother knowing I make buttons, thought it was a button machine like mine that makes pinback buttons. He waited while the woman asked the seller questions and dickered over the price of $20.00. He followed her around hoping she'd change her mind and set it down. Sure enough, she decided not to get it. Knowing that my machines cost between $400 and $600, he grabbed the machine and quickly handed the seller a twenty-dollar bill.

He got home and studied the machine and wondered what the heck he had bought. Now he realized it was not a button machine like mine.

Since I already had 4 button machine in 4 different sizes, I didn't need one anyway. I was thrilled to have a totally different kind of button machine. I made several buttons and then the machine pretty much sat unused for years.

Yesterday my daughter The Purple Rat, decided to see how the machine works, and she proceeded to make some fabric covered buttons.

Watch her shop because she'll be listing fabric buttons very soon.

On the meantime you can get pinback buttons and mirrors at Portable Graffiti.

NEW: Gift wrapping

I've been doing free gift wrapping for customers when they request it. I had a customer yesterday who asked for gift wrapping and a note. Being short on note paper but always having buttons handy, I decided to just make a button instead of a tag with the requested message.

It looked so darn good, I thought, that I decided to offer the wrapping as a listing.

So from now on if a customer wants gift wrapping they can purchase this listing. Not only do they get the buttons gift wrapped but they get another button that tops the package off nicely.

What do you think?

I think the listing needs more examples, because I use assorted scraps of recycled tissue and wrapping paper, and whatever I have on hand: raffia, fabric ribbon, maybe velvet, possibly brown cord, a piece of leather. Sometimes I recycle the nice ribbons and paper that come in items that I buy on Etsy from others.

So basically the wrapping is a surprise.

How to convey that to the customer.

They do get their choice of words on the button. But the background might be different than the one pictured so it goes well with whatever wrapping paper or tissue I use.

Any thoughts? Critiques greatly appreciated.

Before and After my new shelves

Without a garage or a lanai or an office of any kind, I have to use my bedroom as also my office for my main job as freelance proofreader. In order to also make and sell buttons on Etsy my bedroom/proofreading office, is also my button workshop. Up until just the other day, I had my tubs of buttons stacked on top of each other. They were stacked higher than you see in the photo. (That's an oder photo. Wish I had taken one just before the new shelves were built.)The tubs were stacked all the way to the ceiling. So if you ordered a button in one of the bottom tubs, I had to take all the tubs down and spread them all over the floor.

When I needed to find several buttons for a large order, I spread the tubs all over my bed.

Thanks to the local recycling group, I became the recipient of a wonderful supply of 3/4" -plywood. And thanks to a friend who turned the plywood into a unique shelving unit that sits over my desk and across the filing cabinet, finding buttons is a breeze now.

The first photo is obviously the "before" and the second one is the "after."

The next goal is to build a workbench that will fit at the foot of the bed to get the 4 button machines off the floor.