Welcome to The Button Box Blog

One of my earliest memories was sitting on a tall stall in my Nan's craft room, I must have been only 3 or 4 years old. I remember the sun streaming through the window, a black and white movie playing on the small TV in the corner and her sewing machine whirling away creating her next make. She handed me a tin box. It was small but two big for both my tiny toddler hands so I placed it on the table and opened it to find so many little treasure inside. All the colours, shapes and sizes you could imagine. some still had threads attached, some were wooden but the best ones looked like jewels. The noise they would make when I stirred them with my finger in the tin the sound was loud. I would sort them by colour and shape, lining them up and counting them, wonder what their next use will be.

That tin has long gone but the memory hasn't. The female line on my maternal side of my family were makers. From dressmaking, quilts, art, embroidery, tapestry, knitting and crochet, my Nan or my mum would know how to do it and teach me. I would sit by them or watch over their shoulder taking it all in. I was lucky but I didn't realise it at the time.

For generations humans used their hands to create, stitch, mend and weave, whilst these skills are necessary for survival, it is also a way to cope, connect and express. Every culture has its own ways of doing this, passing the skills and knowledge down the generations like precious heirlooms which money cannot value.

The blog is a space to explore the stories each button gives. A celebration of art and crafts and the people behind them. A gentle look at how making can support mental health, especially for those who find the world a little too loud, fast or heavy. I will also be sharing my own personal experiences with creativity and how it helps me with today's world.

Join me in learning, exploring, making, but most of all re opening that button box with me.

Frances