Inspired by Navajo men’s shirts and women’s blouses, over the years, I have purchased a few sets of vintage 1930s-1940s buttons and sewn them on shirts. They’re an inexpensive way to add a little style and compliment more prominent pieces. Anyone else into buttons? 
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Buttons aare awesome.
I inherited my Great Grandma’s and Grandma’s button tins. They are full of treaures.
Over the years, I have used some.
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Love those! But are you deliberately trying to make me spend more money 
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@TAH The buttons are wonderful. The fact that you use these vintage treasures as intended is even better. Buttons have never been on my radar but, I’ll be doing some research on 'em now 
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I love Navajo buttons as mini examples of the silverwork but haven’t made the jump to collecting and using. Mainly I wonder, how do you deal with laundering clothing with them? I’m not open to a handwashing phase in my life.
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Handwashing is the answer. It’s kind of a labor of love, but I figure that’s how the Navajo do/did it.
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Dedication to the craft is why we’re all here, so 
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Without doubt count me in @TAH. Buttons are yet another form of wearable art that I enjoy. The earlier the better. By the way, there’s nothing “little” about the amount of style and class that your fine examples have added to your shirts. As has always been the case, excellent photography!
Thank you for sharing these and for starting another magnificent thread.
I feel it would behoove us all to slow down a bit, wash more clothes by hand, and dedicate more of ourselves to what we hold dear. As @chicfarmer points out, our dedication to the craft is one of the reasons this community exists. I may be a bit “out there”, but I intentionally cook over coals, wash dishes by hand and just in general take a slower approach, to everything. In the pursuit of prosperity, we’ve lost all that’s prosperous…in my opinion
Now back to buttons. I really enjoy the differing versions on the right side of this old ketoh (not mine).
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I hear you overall, but not having an automatic dishwasher for years makes me very grateful to have one now 
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I love your buttons. How old are they? I can tell from your picture that you are stylish, neat and meticulous. I love buttons too so I will show you what I have. The bottom right will be my granddaughters some day. The top right look like inlay howlite. I haven’t tested them yet but they don’t look like turquoise,
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Nancy, you have a nice variety of buttons there. Do you have any plans to put them to use?
All of my buttons were dated 1930s-1940s. Funny you used the word “meticulous”. I guess I do care about attention to detail, but I hate sewing on buttons. 
Thank you for the compliment though!
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I’ve been looking for good buttons like yours for a long while. Any tips on how to source? What to search for online? A favorite shop in-person?
Your picture is so soothing, somehow. It’s like a warm cup of coffee.
(Deleted and reposted to more clearly be “replying!”)
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Thanks TAH. I hate sewing on buttons too. I can barely thread a needle. These button have holders on the back that just snap onto the button. The bottom right ones are cute…I think they are Mexican, but not sure. I will gift them to my granddaughter…her other grandmother knits her sweaters. The other ones I’m not sure what to do with other than collect. @Gia i found them all on SGW. @Steve thank you for the nice reference from Bell trading. I screenshot it.
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Thanks! I don’t work at finding buttons like I do other items. I really only buy them if I come across some that catch my eye and I have a shirt in mind for button replacement.
eBay, Esty, and google searches are probably the easiest way to source. I just use a combination of words like “vintage” “antique” “Navajo” “buttons”. Here is the button selection at Rainbow Man in Santa Fe in October 2023. I’m sure they would be happy to send photos if you gave them a call.
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One of my go to garments in cooler weather is my Filson wool vest. Recently, I became motivated to replace its plastic buttons with some of the Navajo crafted variety. These were made at the Crafts del Navajo shop in Coolidge, NM in the ‘30s.
Since learning of the trading post, I’ve come to love it’s highly unique Yei figure logo/hallmark. The buttons were strung on the original card from the shop, which has proven to be an awesome bookmark.
Back in 2017, Kim and Pat Messier published a deep dive on the establishment. It’s another great read from the highly talented duo.
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Looks great, Aaron! What an improvement over the original buttons. The silver really pops on the black wool. 
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I love these buttons! I have seen lots of button covers at sales but only once actual buttons. These are fabulous, and look fantastic on your clothing. I have some antique buttons, but they are not Native American. Still what a wonderful way to show them off. I may have to look at my buttons and see if I can use them similar to this.
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Thanks Tom! It’s tough to beat old Navajo silver buttons, they really add so much to a garment.
Thank you for your kind words, @chris. As @TAH mentioned previously in his thread, sometimes sets of old silver buttons can be found for cheap online. Many dealers and galleries have hords of them and price them inexpensively. It’s easy enough to sew them on, and personally, I think they completely change the look of clothing for the better.
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This post is mainly for Christmas fun. And also because I started thinking about other materials Native Americans might have used to make buttons. I don’t think any of mine are N.A. but some might be made of bone or antler.
Anyways a few years back I purchased a large box of buttons. Here is what I did with a few of them. The ones in the bottom are mop bone and at least one antler. The ones surrounding the tree are glass. The jewelry inside the tree belonged mainly to my grandmother, but some of it was from my husband’s grandmother as well. I know it ruins the jewelry. And possibly the buttons, but at least they are now being seen every year.
I am clearly not an artist like may of you guys but it was a fun project.
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