People Profiles

Table of Contents
Mary C. Dyer
Michelle Guida
Cindy Sanchez

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She says she "never met a button I didn't like," but her special favorites are imitation fabric glass buttons and pearls. In addition to those materials, she also like a few special themes, or motifs, including stars and hearts. But "I tend to be rather eclectic," she says, and "if I see it, like it, and can afford it, I tend to buy it. I don't do any competions yet, perhaps when I do, I will settle down and work in specific categories."

Unlike some collectors, who have shared their love of buttons with a spouse, Mary is preparing her husband-to-be to accept her button addiction.

"Last summer, while I was visiting my fiancee in Indiana, he was generous enough to take me to any fabric stores I could find. I was looking to complete my set of Mother Goose buttons that were recently released, and was missing just one. As a last resort, he took me to Franklin, a small town near Columbus, IN. When we arrived, there was a "going out of business" sign in the window. He took one look, shrugged in resignation, and said he would wait in the coffee shop next door for an hour or so.

"Did I ever have fun. They had 5 cent buttons, they had 1 cent buttons, they had all of the "good" buttons half off of half off. As I was dithering over what to buy of the best buttons, the sales clerk suggested I ask the owner if he would make me a lump sum deal on them. I did, he did, and the rest is history. I had a great day!"

Button Bytes Light Profiles: MICHELLE GUIDA of West Chester, Pennsylvania

Michelle Guida studied clothing and textiles as well as design in college, and developed a real love of 18th and 19th Century costumes. Shortly after college, she found herself in the Bronx, working in a job she didn't enjoy, and she heard about a vintage clothing sale in Connecticut. She dragged along her then-fiance, and started looking for something small she could enjoy. Of course, she found buttons!

"Several of the dealers there had buttons for sale that just amazed me," Michelle says. "I bought a matched pair of 19th cen. black glass buttons with painted flowers from a dealer who couldn't believe that I wasn't going to turn them into earings. I just thought they were beautiful and I had to have them. After that experience I was hooked. I went out and bought every button book I could find, and started searching the papers for more shows. There wasn't much around, so for a while I had more books on buttons than actual buttons."

Now in Pennsylvania, Michelle hopes to spend more time at "antique stores and flea markets. I also recently discovered eBay and Button Bytes, so now my collection is growing by leaps and bounds!"

Michelle says her favorite material is glass, and she likes both old and modern glass buttons. As with many who love glass, she is really amazed by the workmanship of the Czech Republic, which has historically made buttons and art form. "My currrent favorites are the Czech glass buttons with the foil and goldstone stripes and lampworked flower designs. They're so colorful, a real feast for the eyes."

A fan of fantasy novels, Michelle collects dragons, faeries and gnomes on buttons. "I'm also fascinated with the orient, so I like anything with an oriental theme." Because of that love, she's hoping to add many old Satsuma buttons to her collections.

Michelle's still searching for a best find...so far, she's had near misses, as many collectors can remember. "Like the time my sister's father-in-law told me about his grandmother's button boxes. She had kept several large boxes of old buttons. When she passed away, no one in the family wanted them, so he kept them in his basement. The week before I spoke with him, he had decided to clean out his basement and threw out all the buttons. He said he couldn't imagine anyone ever wanting them. Needless to say, I felt sick to my stomach.

"I try and tell myself that they were probably in bad condition anyway, but I still wonder what was in those boxes," she says.

But usually she's busy enjoying the buttons she does have, and sharing them with her two children. "My four-year-old daughter has her own "collection" of buttons that I bought for her at the craft store. And one of my 22 month-old son's first words was "button."

Button Bytes Light Profiles: CINDY SANCHEZ of Rancho Cordova, California

At a friend's garage sale, Cindy Sanchez saw a bag full of buttons. She thought, "how weird, whoever heard of selling buttons?" she says. The friend explained about different materials and Cindy was all ears. That was five years ago, and now, she admits, "What a dumb statement. You have never heard me say that again."

Her lighthouse collection looks great with the buttons she started to add in (well, Almost all) and that was it I was hooked. I collect lighthouses as well and the two go together nicely.

"I like many different types of buttons," Cindy says, In addition to Cinnabar, which she finds interesting, she likes paper weights and picture buttons, and enjoys a few special subject areas, like lighthouse, boats, hearts, and new plastics.

Cindy also enjoys putting together cards of mixed materials in various colors, such as purple or gray and even orange...which makes it hard to find those horn and shell buttons in the right colors, she says.

There's no button she's really hunting "a nice silver button with an amethyst," she says.

Since her intial introduction to buttons, Cindy's been adding buttons to her collection and increasing her knowledge, and has already been sharing her knowledge with other button collectors by becoming involved with a local button club. "I am the President of the Camellia City Button Club here in Sacramento, this is my 2nd term," she says. "We meet on the 3rd Thursday of the month at night so the people who work have a club to come to. We have club members give talks and we also have guests who come and speak to us, and are always on the look-out for more speakers or members."