{HOW-TO} make your own jacket buttons!

Finding affordable, consistent, used, larger jacket buttons can be challenging. New buttons can cost up to $6.00 a button, making it completely uneconomical to use in larger scale production. I decided making buttons was not a task too challenging for Madam Chino. Here's HOW!

First go to the hardware store and get a closet pole or dowel just the right size for you! The type of wood will be less important because you will want to polyurethane them for color and strength. Cut closet pole dowels down in 1/4" segments using a chop saw. Sawing slowly will ensure that the thinner wood will be cut smoothly. This photo is of the similar process using the chopsaw on branches for wooden ornaments cut at a 45, however buttons are just a straight cut. Marking the table of the saw with a piece of masking tape will help to ensure consistent measures.


Use a pre-existing button to center on the button cuts, and trace the holes


Use a regular drill to cut the holes, or a drill press if you have it! I was able to borrow this one from a friend:


Individually sand down the edges of each button


Attach each button to a wire hanger that has been cut down to a smaller size so that they will fit into the bucket of poly. I was able to create a few of these hangers to attach all 87 buttons and run them in sequence.


The button hangers can be dipped into a well stirred polyurethane paint bucket and hung to dry on a dowel over some wax paper. I would come back to the dripping hanger to dab the excess dripping off of the buttons before they would solidify. I dipped them about 3-4 times each.


Post-dip, the holes need to be re-punched, but not re-drilled. I used the drill press while it was off to punch them out again.

These buttons were used in the Madam Chino Spring Mens collection which can be viewed in the latter half of the post found HERE!

{RENEGADE BROOKLYN} a day late and a buck more

Traveling 3 hours by subway and bus to LaGuardia Airport on a Friday night to discover that a fire in the air traffic control center was forestalling over half of the flights from departing, that I had a 6 hour line concluding my departure wouldn't be till Sunday, alas preventing me from participating in the MKE Summer Solstice Market, I can't say I was all THAT excited. HOWEVER, getting a phone message from my school informing me that I would have my job back next fall, and an email from RENEGADE CRAFT FAIR reminding me that Renegade Brooklyn would be that weekend resolved my sentiments. Besides, who doesn't want 2 extra days of vacation?

Having participated in Renegade Brooklyn two summers prior and driving all the way from Milwaukee WI in a rental car with Madam Chino goodies, I had an extra appreciation as an onlooker. This year it was in East River State Park, along the water in Brooklyn NYC.


As an artist and crafter it is hard to get the opportunity to relax and take in the visual and tactile textures of other crafters. Here are a few of the favorites I've chosen based on uniqueness and originality!

HARP AND THISTLE STITCHERY mini rug hooking
ERIN is the shop owner who does mini rug hooking and converts the finished pieces into all kinds of darling accessories. What a neat process! She sat out front with a hand-hooked name tag, and showed onlookers how she works.
HARP and THISTLE STITCHERY SHOP




DIRTSA STUDIO chalkboard scroll banners
These ladies had such a fun interactive idea I was immediately drawn to their booth. Unpictured, there was a map of the USA where people could put an X on their hometowns, and by the time I arrived, three Milwaukeeans had already Xed out our town. What a cool way to track info in a thematic way.
DIRTSA STUDIO blog




THIEF AND BANDIT geometry for your mind and body
I was introduced to Thief and Bandit when I was at Brooklyn Renegade two years ago. The owner Amie came to my booth and offered me a braided ribbon-clamped necklace in trade for one of my hand-printed woodgrain tanks. I was so flattered and excited! Thief and Bandit hand makes and screen prints "all-over" patterns all of their own shirts, a time consuming task well worth the results. This year they made little cruiser skateboards too!
THIEF and BANDIT website




ALLISON WILDER sweet fanny pax
This lady makes the coolest contemporary fanny packs I've ever seen. She appears to do much more than that, as most artists do, but you can check out her blog and support her work by getting one of her shop items on etsy!
ALISON WILDER website/artkive
ALISON WILDER shop



RUFFEO HEARTS LIL SNOTTY insane rainbow piecework for your treasure chests
I've been a long-time fan of RHLS because, beyond their awesome marketing tactics, they are amazing designers using deadstock fabrics pieced together in puzzle-like ways with intense consistency. From underwear to swimsuits, mesh tanks and spandex dresses, these people are obviously out of this world.
RHLS shop



talk soon!

xx,
madam chino

{TEXTILE RECYCLING} factory tour and lot purchase

Post round-trip ticket purchase to NYC, I discovered an amazing and customer-friendly company that recycles massive amounts of textiles and exports them around the world, right in New Jersey just 20 minutes out of the city. After a last minute discussion with the lovely Hannah, directress of the vintage department, we solidified an appointment for midweek during my NYC stay. Day of the appointment, Fred my friend and assistant of the day and I, caught a taxi to the Port Authority Bus Station in Manhattan where we got on the free employee bus for a ride out to the plant at 6:30 am.

Our 7am arrival in the office of Hannah, who collected vintage clothing tags for a display


She allowed us to wander about the vintage department while the floor manager Hani set us up with the crates. The patterns that are created from the repetition of forms are vast by virtue of the massive amounts of material.
The vintage sorting area used boxes and boxes in about 5 block long aisles, often double stacked and labeled:





Clearly anyone would be tempted, however my appointment was not for buying vintage:




Giant containers




Aisles of bales, each bale generally weighs about 100lbs. These are ready to be shipped.




Thus commenced our sorting arena around 7:30. Hani and Hannah walked us to our sorting table somewhere in the middle of the factory, wheeled up two giant crates 6 feet tall, 6 feet wide, and 4 feet deep, one full one, one empty one, and a canvas lined cart to put the shirts we wanted in.




The prospects of all these shirts was overwhelming. Our sorting system entailed that Fred slung the shirts between the full and the empty crates, placing the prospective shirts in the center bin, where I would take them out and lay them on the table in color piles, hand picking them further by textures.







We spent the entire work day sorting and were able to obtain 227 lbs of tshirts that were paid and shipped to my studio at the Fortress the following week.


Current toilings include research and purchase of three new industrial sewing machines so that processing these tshirts into upcycled dresses, shirts, skirts and shorts will be fun and fast! And you don't stop, and you don't quit!

xx, madam chino

{EAST SIDE GREEN MARKET} 2012

In the tradition of every summer for the last 9 years, save one summer when I taught screenprinting at Agape Community Center, Madam Chino will be at the East Side Green Market, this year with the LOOK NOOK as a traveling showcase of Handmade and Vintage, alongside of Ella Dwyer of Fox Fawn Vintage



Heres a few flicks of the booth last summer:






xx, vv