Sea China Buttons

What's left of historic DC, after the water washes it clean and smooth.

Brenda's buttons rock my world.

Seriously. She showed up in my shop this weekend, three years after we first met, with buttons made from pottery shards. I  bought as many as I could, with orders for many more. I'm inspired by them, and have found myself dreaming about sewing again--creating fashions that focus on the beauties of sea-softened china, wearable antiques.

Back when I first opened the shop, Brenda wanted to talk about sea-pottery. She was staying on a boat moored in the Cape Charles harbor, and had bags of old, beautifully worn china. Some of the pieces looked historically significant to me, and I sent pictures of them to a materials culture expert.

But nothing came of it. I encouraged Brenda to take the china doll pieces that her husband had found to a museum. I don't think anything came of that, either. One day all those "body parts," as she calls them, will be valuable. We don't make little china dolls for our children anymore.

This weekend, she told me about their secret hunting grounds in Northern Virginia. Apparently a dump from Washington, D.C. had been dug up generations ago and relocated to waterfront land near her husband's business. Over the decades, erosion washed out the landfill and tumbled its glass and china to sweet smoothness. Her husband finds hundreds of beautifully ripe shards. They match them as best they can, drill holes for thread, and mount them on hand-printed cards. Charming.

I imagine all of these shards in a museum. To me, they express the material culture of an America long gone. Ironically, most of the china was probably made in Europe and imported for the upper class families in DC. Drilling the button holes probably destroys whatever antique value they have. But what the hell......they're pretty and unusual.

And another artisan makes some money from beach combing.