All Buttons Great and Small: A compelling history of the button, from the Stone Age to today

by Lucy Godoroja

Overview

All Buttons Great and Small is an exploration of the craftsmanship and peculiar history of buttons. From antiques to contemporary design and production, it will inspire a new era of button-makers and enthusiasts, who have an exciting challenge ahead with emerging technologies and pressures on sustainability. Full of fascinating facts and crafty inspiration, this is the perfect gift for designers, sewers, collectors, and anyone else who shares an interest in the humble button.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781925820836
Publisher:	Exisle Publishing
Publication date:	10/31/2023
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	7.25(w) x 9.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lucy Godoroja has always had an interest in the creative process, whether through the handcrafts of sewing and needlework or jewellery making, to the design of large or small objects. She also has a great love of travel and adventure; born in Canada, she came alone to Australia at the age of 23, moved to the Netherlands at 24, then returned to Australia after 4 years.

A serendipitous meeting in Amsterdam with a button shop owner renewed her passion for this small, innocuous object, inspiring her to open her own button shop in Newtown, Australia, called ‘All Buttons Great and Small’. There followed both a career path and a life of shared stories and exchanged ideas … and buttons. Lucy has been published in collections about fashions, jewels, shops and travel, and All Buttons Great and Small is her first book.

Editorial Reviews

This is a serious book, albeit a very personal one, and one that would serve well as a reference book for anyone researching buttons and their history.” – Button Lines  

“Lucy Godoroja was unexpectedly introduced to the fascinating world of buttons in the late 1980s, in Amsterdam's old canal district. She got hooked on these tiny treasures, buying an entire warehouse of buttons, sight unseen, from a button merchant's daughter in Milan. Lucy managed to get this precious stash of buttons to Australia, where she's been running her own button shop in Sydney's inner west for 30 years now” - ABC Conversations

“This fascinating book full of colorful visuals from author and expert Godoroja explores the history of the button, the amazing craftsmanship and artistry in button-making and how buttons tell us so much about fashions of the day. As Martha Stewart once said, “Buttons are the fossils of the sartorial world, enduring long past the garments they were designed to hold.” - Parade Magazine

“Depicts the peculiar history of the button, offering a world of delight” - Classic Chicago Magazine

“Such an entertaining and well written book” - Blue Wolf Reviews

“This richly illustrated book offers a history and celebration of the humble button, highlighting its beauty, versatility and longevity. It's full of fascinating facts and crafty inspiration - perfect for sewers, collectors and designers.. " - The Senior

From the Publisher

06/10/2024

Godoroja channels her passion for buttons into her first book. Named after the author's button store in Newtown, Australia, this work traces a meandering path through the history of buttons. Each chapter focuses on a different type of fastener or garment decoration and the materials used to make them. The book is not arranged chronologically, so certain parts about when and where different buttons were made overlap and are a bit repetitive. The wide-ranging work contains a significant bibliography and comes close—but not quite—to being a scholarly text. VERDICT Libraries in communities with historical ties to button-making or readers who are interested in manufacturing's past may enjoy.—Carrie Byrd

Library Journal