Page 13 - May1954

May, 19 5 4 NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN
203
mold. rn the case of braid and gimp and of lace and ribbon, however, the
cover may actually be assembled.
Perhaps braid and gimp should be clearly distinguished from cord.
In most cases there is no problem, cord is thict ana ,.""[l
i."ia is thin and
flat. someti'res, however, when braid is very narro.w and tighily woven
it has an appearance similar to cord. rt is distinguished from?rd by the
fact that it is rvoven. Cord is not.
The list of classes for different sorts of fabric are serf-explanatory both
-elsewhere,
under hand covered and under machine covered. rrere as -.ou".* the
term multi- is used to two or more, in this case button
-mean having
two or more kinds of fabric used together. Note that buttons made of two
different colors of the same fabric oi ones embroidered in n .".o,'d material
should not be classifled here.
special button weaves incrude alr machine covered buttons in which
the pattern fits the size and shape of the button. Representationat patterns
include flowers, Ieaves, birds, etc., as well as heads and other ,,pictorial',
subjects.
Embroidery is so favorite a type of embellishment that speciarized
mountings are possible of hand and machine work, or even of certain stitches.
All embroidered buttons belong in the textile section, rvhether or not
the material embroidered upon is a textile. That is, the embroidery itserf
remains a textile art even rvhen (as in so many lgth century buttons) it is
used to decorate foil, paper or other non-fabric ground.
Painting is used here to include all application of pigment to croth,
be it true paint of such mediums as ink, crayon, etc.
Buttons which emproy textiles in other ways than to form a cover are
being classifled as trims.
A background is a piece of fabric fitted inside a button frame and
underneath the design which is of another materiar, usuaily stampea metal.
Picture buttons with veivet backgrounds illustrate the clasj.
A cut-out is a button with the fabric laid as above but instead of its
beins used for a background, it becomes the pattern it;;ii.- The design
is cut out of a piece of metal and thrown away; the metal from which it wis
cut is then placed over the cloth so that the empty praces are cororfully
filled in.
In a cut-out, the design is absolutely dependent upon the fabric for its
chara_cter; in a background the design is independent of ttre fabric which is
added only as an accent.
cord trim rneans cord used as a trim on non-textile materials. cord
appiied to cloth is included with other embroidery.
Laid centers are buttons distinctive both in construction and application
of textiles. we know them best in brack grass and vesetable ii';ry. The
body of the button is cut o' molded from a single piece of materiat and in
the center of the front a shallow circular recess is forrned to receive a
riisk of cloth or crochet. some centers are cemented into place and some
are servn in.
Parti-textiles is something of a catch-all class for all that is left over
after classifyinc both complete covers and the above listed trims. These
buttons employ textiles with other materials, most commonly metal, in such
a way that you can neither call the result a textile button oi a metal button
nor can you call one part trim any more accurately than the other.