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Glass Onion Bead Company was founded in 1990 by husband and wife team David Johnson and Debbie Austin-Johnson. While starting out as a stained glass studio, we have evolved into a bead store with the largest selection in Northeast Wisconsin. We offer a wide variety of classes with award winning bead instructors.

Friday, August 2, 2013

The National Button show is coming to town!

We have a national treasure coming to our own back yard!  The NATIONAL BUTTON Show is going to be in Appleton, August 12 through the 17th.  If you've never been to a button show, it's really interesting.  Button collectors are a lot like bead people.  If the word "hoarders" comes to mind..... you understand what I'm talking about. 

The first part of the week consists of competitions.  Collectors have their buttons arranged in trays.  They could collect elephant buttons, for example.  Their "tray" would consist of maybe 50 different elephant buttons from all over the world and possibly be over 100 years old.  The subject matter for the collection ranges from animals to patriotic, war to windmills.  The different subject matters are endless. The trays are so very interesting to look at.  A button in the tray could cost anywhere from $5 to $500.  This is serious business! If you don't use buttons in any of your many artistic interests, I would still recommend you going to the show.   The showroom opens to the public on Thursday, August 15 from 10-5.  Same hours for Friday and Saturday, August 17, from 10-3.  Most of the vendors have "poke boxes" at the end of their tables.  These are big cardboard boxes chucked full of buttons.  Prices range from $.50 to $3 a button.  I have found from experience, the further back you go, the cheaper they get.  If you would like more info about the show go to:


words for the day......
The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do it.

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