Melinda Hutton is an artist from Newton, Kansas. She designs bracelets using antique and collectible buttons. Each piece she designs is one-of-a-kind, and most of the buttons she uses date from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s.

Melinda stumbled upon the world of antique buttons several years ago and became hooked! “Imagine my delight in finding a medium for jewelry which is richly varied, imaginatively designed and exquisitely crafted. My goal with my designs is to create heirloom pieces of jewelry that will preserve the art of vintage buttons and expose these tiny ‘masterpieces’ to more people.”

Melinda appreciates the historical value of antique buttons and joined the National Button Society (comprised of more than 4,000 members) to learn all about the buttons she wanted to use. She only uses buttons that are still plentiful in the button collecting circles. “I usually purchase buttons that are not deemed collectible due to their condition or availability. They are ALL wonderful and fascinating to me, but the experienced collector usually isn’t interested in the buttons I like. When I do get a ’special’ button it goes into my personal collection and out of my general stock. The larger picture buttons are too special not to wear as a pin…so I leave the shank on the back so they can always be restored to a button.”