Blog — compass rose design

Victorian Buttons & NecklaceI love making antique and Victorian button jewelry. Searching for Victorian buttons for my antique button jewelry is one of my favorite adventures. Discovering jars at estate sales and hidden corners of junk shops and sorting them into colors and eras and designs is deeply satisfying.Buttons were invented in the Bronze Age. Their earliest use in Ancient Greece, the Indus Valley and China was as ornament rather than fastener. 15th Century Button from the UKButtons of bone, shell and horn are some of the earliest found. Ornamental shell buttons have been found in the Indus Valley made around...

NEW HOLIDAY SHOWS JUST ADDED:  Holiday Bazaar Fundraiser for Firehouse 8 Saturday, November 26, 2011,10 am - 8 pm1648 Pacific Ave.San Francisco, CA(more info)DNA Storefront Pop-Up ShopSaturdays, December 10 and 17th, 201112 am - 5 pm1767 Waller (at Stanyan), San Francisco, CA(more info) Bizaar BazaarSaturday & Sunday, December 3rd and 4th, 201111 am - 5 pmConcourse Exhibition Center, San Francisco, CA(more info) I'd like to honor the many fabulous gallery and shop owners that I work with. Each is has an ability to transmute their ideas and philosophies into a physical environment. Compass Rose Design fits into each one in a unique...

I'm really grateful for the community aspect of this work. I adore the hours of time alone with my ideas, trays of old keys and cameos, soldering, weaving with metal. But I LOVE show season - the summer months that stretch into fall where I appreciate both my amazing customers and the clever organizers of events and marketplace craftiness. The marketplace interaction - direct from maker to appreciator, whether bread or a bracelet - is one of the oldest community interactions in this human family. I've gotten back into cameos. They are quite an investment on my end, but I...

Compass Rose Design has been going through some exciting growth lately. I've been so busy making things and keeping up with new galleries, but wanted to make a few announcements!First - I have joined the best kind of 700s club - not the Pat Robertson variety - but I just passed my 700th sale through my etsy shop - thrilling!!!I made the etsy front page with one of my upcycled clockwork necklaces:Last week, I scored a fabulous pile of antique cabinet keys - and went to town making long and short necklaces of every variety - delicate and sturdy at...