Page 24 - May1954

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NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN May, 19 5 4
DEAIIII'S.HEAD PATTIXRN MISTAKEN I'OR CROCIIET (Continued)
takes an entirely different direction. It cannot be followed around and
around, or up and down, or from center to rim and back again. The death's-
head pattern looks as though it were made of four different triangles,
meeting in the center, each one with its own direction of weave.
Once one has learned to catch this four-part design, one will watch fbr
it. A whole card of different sizes and colors can be assembled to illustrate
the obsolete handicraft of needlewrought buttons.

In addition to the buttons just describsfl-s16s needlewrought in a
stitch resembling crochet work-many other buttons will be found having
this same pattern. Even in thread, the death's head can be produced by other
techniques. Note that the instructions given for winding a mold on page
215 are for the making of this very pattern. The brochette "stitch,"
however, cannot be mistaken for crochet work as it is long and straight, like
a darning stitch, and is closely laid with no lacy effect.
The phrase "even in thread" implies that the death's head pattern is
found in other materials besides textile and this is true. It can be stamped
on metal as it is in the well-known British army chaplain's button. It can
be embossed on wood, vegetable ivory, horn and other similar materials. A
card of death's head design in assorted materials and techniques is quite
as interesting a project as one in needlewrought buttons alone.

THREAD BUTTONS NAMED "WHEELS''
About the middle of the last century a distinctive type of thread cover
made with a brochette and needle became fashionable. Whatever name of
its own it may have had in its day is now lost from the button collector's
vocabulary. Coliectors have often typed "wheels" (our new name for them)
as a. sub-branch of the crochet group. In appearance they have some slight
resemblance to crochet work, but actually they are an entirely different
article.
Let us look closely at some examples. (See p. 206, lb(2)). The molds
(which are pierced-center disks) are always doubly covered, flrst with a tight
sheath of thread or cloth and then with the wheel. The sheath is often
of lisht, floss-like thread; the wheel of much coarser hard-twist. The
simplest wbeel covers have a "hub" in the center with "spokes" radiat-
ing ott to and over the edge of the mold. X.ancier ones have the spokes
interlaced with cross threads and the elaborateness of the design increases
with the number of spokes in the wheel.
Characteristic hubs have circular or star-pointed shapes. All designs
are left quite open so that the wheel is set off by the color and texture
under it.