People Profiles

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Button Bytes Light Profiles:   JAN RUHNOW of Stafford, Texas

     A few years ago, after inheriting her mother’s button box, Jan started adding to her stash of buttons, and it her love of them grew into a button business. Although she claims she has too many buttons to count, or to select a favorite one, her favorite type of buttons are moonglows, since there is such a variety of color and design. She’s also looking for people who know more about the variety of shapes various moonglows come in.

     Once, while looking for rabbits, elephants and Dachshounds, in a variety of materials (those are her favorites motifs) she stumbled over a dusty jar of buttons at a flea market. "Inside the jar were several moonglows and two radiants," she said. Lucky Jan!

Button Bytes Light Profiles:   MELANIE PARSONS of Norfolk, Virginia

     When Melanie was young, she would play with an orange sew-through bakelite gear button she found in her mother’s button tin. "It reminded me of her and the stories she'd tell of growing up in the Virginia mountains in the 30's and 40's," Melanie said.

     She would pick up buttons when she could, and eventually, about two years ago she began using the buttons to make crafts and jewelry, though she didn’t know about collectible buttons. That year she went to the North Carolina State button show, and became a dertifiable button collector!

     She likes all kinds of buttons, but she has been looking for whistles, sew-threws with unusual numbers of holes, and underwear buttons with faces painted on them.

     While looking for buttons, she managed to get a cobalt blue Satsuma for 10 cents! "I was new to collecting and wasn't sure it was a Satsuma or I'd have offered her a more reasonable price," Melanie said. "However, I was pretty tickled when I got home and consulted my Big Book of Buttons."

     Melanie is raising a future button collector. Her daughter Ginny, wants to start selling buttons on Wild Wednesday (the day Button Bytes members offer buttons for sale to others). And her fiancé, Scott, a history fan, is trying to learn more about military buttons.

     She’s got a word of caution for those interested in a button business: "Fight the urge to get so attached to a button that you can't sell it if you really plan to make a business out of your hobby," she said.