Blog

We get great feedback from beekeepers, farmers and gardeners about our silver and bronze bee jewelry. The Victorians LOVED botanical scenes and insect adornments. Honey bees and beehives, beetles and dragonflies, flowers and butterflies of all sorts were the subject of many buttons in the 1860s.  Here are a few of bee and insects from our button collection. Bees and insect are also the subject of several plates in our 1941 book, Button Classics, an encyclopedia and pricing guide. We have cast several of our most treasured bee and garden buttons in sterling silver - check out our bee and flower jewelry made...

I'm part of a collective of women artisan business owners in the San Francisco Bay Area. We help motivate each other and share resources over a monthly shared meal. I think of Compass Rose Design as a family business more than a woman-owned business, since Johnny and I are equal partners in our work (and parenting.)  Connecting with these spectacular women has been powerful for my business and identity as a woman entrepreneur. We've just launched a Creative Pursuit Collective website if you'd like to check out six other handmade collections from bay area painters and jewelry designers.    You can...

In the midst of looking at Pieter Breugel the Elder's 16th century proverb paintings, I fell into a fashion-related detour. The huyck or heuk or huik, was a cloak worn by women of the Lowlands when they went outside the home. The huik was a large rectangular woolen cloak fixed to a felted hat or duck-bill-like visor, first appearing in records around 1520. It makes sense as a garment for warmth, sun protection, and modesty. The ultimate wearable sun hat / blanket.  A woman from Bergen and a woman from Goes, 1520, by Albrecht Dürer Above and below, you can see several in...

Our selection of handmade railroad gifts are crafted with genuine antique train buttons reaching back to the steam engine era of the 1870s and 1880s when railroads changed travel, time and place. We have railroad cufflinks and pins that every train lover will enjoy. We have Conductor and Motorman button cufflinks - and occasionally we get a Porter, and Agent or other position.  Our vintage railroad button pins are also a great gift. Set on hand-soldered silver stickpins, they can be worn on a hat or lapel or bag. Each genuine antique button is set on a handmade sterling stick pin.  Shop Vintage Railroad and...