The Beginning

Figuring out how to begin a blog is perplexing, so I think we have to just dive in and figure it out as we go along. Basically, our button business has evolved rather quickly from a fleeting notion to a rapidly expanding offering of designs that appeal to 'niche' hobbies and interests.

Our eBay store named, EMBLAZON YOURSELF, was launched in January 2008 with an initial offering of mainly rowing and crew buttons that I had designed to sell and raise money for the Wilmington Youth Rowing Club, where a couple of my kids row.

One of my daughters is a coxswain, so I eventually designed a set of coxswain buttons, too.

Because a few of my kids had tried and loved Irish Dancing, I designed and added about 70 different Irish Dance buttons to the store. The reception was encouraging and one of our first customers, who lives in the UK, remains very dear to my heart and because of the flurry of emails we sent each other I have a new friend.

Here is a video she sent me of her granddaughter's

Irish Dance bag which she covered with our buttons,

some of which were custom designed for her.

Sometimes I wonder why there are so many names to call these items I am making. Basically they are 1-1/4" round with a Mylar covered design on the front and a pin with a catch on the back.

Among the names I've found are buttons, pin backs, pins, or badges. Apparently, the name you use depends on your geographic location in the world. Personally, I think 'buttons' are what you sew on clothes to serve as a closure when put them through a buttonhole. The word 'pins' seem to work better when referring to costume jewelry.

So, for me it comes down to 'pin backs' and 'badges' as the best words to describe what we make, but we come from the part of the world where 'button' is the acceptable, understood word so we decided to explore creating a web store using the domain, 'Button Niche', which we just acquired. We want to create an online marketplace of 'niche' buttons and other just plain fun buttons and magnets. Now the challenge is to find a Web Designer who can make our vision a reality.

Love this button!

I especially like to use Kool-Aid to dye sheep wool and mohair, plus I have more wool than I can use in a lifetime so the fun will never end.

More dyeing and felting buttons are in our store.

For the last couple of years, my 13 year old son and I can't get enough of the sport of curling. We love to watch it on television and everyone else in the family thinks we are crazy when they see us cheering and yelling for our favorites. I doubt if there are any local curling clubs, because we live in the Mid-Atlantic states where we hardly ever see a good hard freeze anymore. Thus, our love of the sport inspired me to create a small collection of curling buttons.

Another fascination I have is red heel sock monkeys. As of now I have 9 sock monkey buttons in my eBay store, and just recently created over 20 new designs, which haven't been listed yet. On a later post I will introduce them to you. My goal is to have the largest collection of sock monkey buttons in the world. If you have any cool sock monkey pictures you could share, I'd love to make them into buttons and I'll send you some free buttons for letting me use your pictures, plus I could add a link to your site on my eBay listing for the button. I thought this might be a great marketing tool for someone who makes and sells sock monkeys on Etsy or other places. Let me know what you think of this idea!