Button jewelry is basically just salvage work with more steps
You take an old button, you attach something to hang it or wear it, and you sell it or give it away. That's the entire process at a high level. The actual execution is where people shoot themselves in the foot. Start by picking the right button. Most tutorials tell you to go vintage, but not all vintage buttons are worth working with. I learned this the hard way when I bought a bulk lot of 1940s Bakelite buttons from an estate sale. They looked gorgeous on the surface. Three months later, two of the necklaces I'd made with them had cracked down the center from normal wear. Bakelite gets brittle. It doesn't matter how well you seal it. Porcelain and resin are far more forgiving for this kind of thing. Metal buttons work too, but they add weight and you need to account for that when you're choosing your chain or cord. The basic method goes like this. Clean the button first. Dish soap and warm water, soft brush, let it dry completely. Any residue from skin oils or old glue will prevent your adhesive from bonding properly. Then you decide whether you're making a pendant, an earring, or a brooch. This decision matters before you start drilling or gluing because it determines how much stress the attachment point takes.
For pendants, you need a bail. You can buy pre-made metal bails that glue onto the button, or you can make one from wire. Wire is cheaper but takes more time. A 22-gauge half-hard brass wire bent into a loop and coiled around the button's existing hole (or drilled new hole) works fine. I use a small bead of E6000 adhesive under the wire coil to lock it in place. Let it cure for at least 24 hours before you thread the chain through it. Rushing this step is the single most common mistake I see. People hang the necklace on day one and the bail pops off within a week. Drilling holes in buttons that don't have them requires a pin vise or a flexible shaft rotary tool. Ceramic and dense resin buttons need a carbide bit. Plastic buttons can be drilled with a standard HSS bit. Go slow. If you go too fast, the heat softens the button material and the bit grabs instead of cutting, which cracks the button instantly. I drill from both sides so the bit exits cleanly rather than splintering the back edge. A piece of masking tape over the drilling area also helps reduce chipping on glossy finishes. For earrings, you're working with much smaller stress points. A stud earring requires a flat backing that sits flush against the button. I use epoxy putty shaped into a small disc on the back of the button, then press an earring post into it while the putty is still workable. Once it cures, which takes about 5 minutes for most two-part epoxies, you have a solid mechanical bond. The downside is that epoxy putty adds thickness. Your finished earring will sit further from the earlobe than a standard stud, which some people find uncomfortable for extended wear. If that's a concern, skip the putty and use a three-dimensional glue like Gelpoxy instead, which you can apply in a thin layer.
Brooches are the easiest format because the pin mechanism distributes force across the entire back of the button rather than concentrating it at one point. You just glue a standard brooch clasp to the back using the same E6000 approach. The clasp needs a broad enough footprint to match the button's surface area, or the whole thing will flex and eventually detach. I usually sand the back of the button lightly with 220-grit paper before gluing to give the adhesive something to grip. Smooth pressed-metal buttons are particularly slippery and tend to pop off their clasps after a few months of normal use. Sealing is optional but recommended if you're working with painted or printed buttons, which most vintage ones are. A thin coat of clear acrylic spray or brushed enamel prevents the design from wearing off over time. Two light coats are better than one heavy coat because heavy coats tend to run and pool, which looks terrible on small surfaces. Let each coat dry for 10 minutes minimum. This adds about 20 minutes to your total project time but extends the visible life of the button by years. Here's something nobody really talks about: the weight of your findings matters more than you'd think. A decorative Victorian button might weigh 8 grams, and if you pair it with a heavy sterling silver chain, the total weight pulls on the attachment point continuously. That's a failure waiting to happen. I learned this after a customer sent me back a pendant where the bail had torn through the button hole. The button was cast metal and weighed 12 grams. I was using a 20-gauge wire bail on a 16-inch cable chain. The math didn't work. Switching to a wider wire loop that distributed the load across more of the button's surface, plus a heavier 18-gauge bail, fixed the problem permanently.
If you're making multiple pieces and want consistency, build a simple jig. A block of wood with holes drilled at different diameters lets you position the button perfectly centered every time. It saves maybe 30 seconds per piece, but when you're doing ten or twenty at a time, that adds up to real time. I also keep a small container of spare findings near my work area because fumbling around looking for the right size jump ring while your glue is setting is how you lose half your bonding strength. The market for button jewelry is real but narrow. Most people who buy it are looking for vintage aesthetics, which means your buttons need to actually look used and authentic. New plastic buttons painted to look old come across as costume jewelry rather than craft. That's fine if that's your market, but the pricing is significantly lower. Authentic vintage buttons from thrift stores, garage sales, and estate liquidations typically run 5 to 15 cents each in bulk. A finished pendant with a decent chain sells for $18 to $35 depending on your market. Margins are decent if you're efficient, terrible if you spend an hour on each piece. I've stopped recommending this as a side-income strategy because the time investment per unit is higher than most people expect when you're doing it properly. But as a hobby, it's genuinely satisfying. You're taking discarded objects and giving them a second function. That's about as honest as craft gets.
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