Artist Donna Sutor working on a piece in the studio at her Robbinsville home June 18, 2013. (Staff photos by Rob Anthes.)
Button jewelery crafted by Robbinsville resident Donna Sutor. (Staff photos by Rob Anthes.)
Button jewelery crafted by Robbinsville resident Donna Sutor. (Staff photos by Rob Anthes.)
Robbinsville resident, Donna Sutor, uses her fashion industry experience to make jewelry out of antique buttons.
By Jessica Oates
After 10 years working in the New York City fashion industry, Robbinsville resident Donna Sutor settled down to start a family with her husband.
It was hardly the end of her creative career, though. In fact, Sutor’s creativity took on a whole new form when a friend asked for help designing invitations for a special event.
“Once I made those invitations, the phone calls started coming in,” Sutor said. “For a while I had a small greeting card business. People would come to me for custom gifts like photo albums for weddings. I love textile papers and trims, having my hands on all the pieces and putting together something beautiful.”
It seemed Sutor had stumbled upon a business opportunity, but that was only the start. Something even more appealling caught her eye, literally: After 20 years of collecting beautiful antique buttons, it finally dawned on her that she could combine her hobby and her former career into one venture. It’s a venture that is now paying dividends.
“I had been displaying my favorites around the house, but, one day, I came across one that I wanted to wear,” Sutor said. “It was just so beautiful. I guess you could say it all started with one button.”
So, Sutor got to work, using her collection of gorgeous antique buttons for inspiration to create beautiful statement jewelry samples for her friends.
“I needed my best friends’ opinions,” she said. “So we all went out to dinner. I put some of my favorite pieces on a table, and they all reached for them at once.”
Her work is done in a small, in-home studio. Customers can browse the things she makes there—her collection of antique button jewelry and art glass necklaces—on her Etsy.com site, aptly titled “veryDonna.” Sutor set up shop there in November 2011. According to her Etsy account profile, Sutor loves the thrill of the “find” and all of the possibility it creates.
“Donna’s cards were over the top beautiful,” said Luanna Tampe, a customer, friend and former neighbor of Sutor’s. “Our group of friends was so excited when she branched out into jewelry. She has such a passion for buttons … She even used to put them on her cards here and there.”
Sutor does plenty of work to find the buttons, going to markets, combing antique stores and shopping online at button trader websites and on eBay.
“You can spend all day at a market and come away with three great buttons, but that isn’t enough.”
That’s why she connects with other button enthusiasts on the web.
“There are many reputable and educated dealers and historians online,” Sutor said. “I do a lot of research on the internet, but there are also lots of books – even button trading clubs – where enthusiasts can share knowledge and trade pieces.”
Sutor says that says that the most she has ever spent on a button is $75, though this is on the much higher end. She spends between $5 and $35 on most of her antique “finds,” and then gives them new life as a piece of elegant statement jewelry.
“Czech glass buttons are some of my favorites,” she said. “They are known for making reverse painted glass buttons. When the light shines through them, they glow like fire.”
Sutor also has a love of antique mother of pearl buttons, as well as jett glass, which she crafts into beautiful, Downtown Abbey-esque, mourning jewelry.
“They just don’t make buttons like this anymore,” she said.
Along with Sutor’s passion for crafting romantic and beautiful works of art is her passion for the history behind each button that she builds the jewelry around. She sometimes hangs on to buttons for months until she can find the right setting.
“I have to do each one justice,” she said.
Tampe said Sutor is a perfectionist.
“She keeps a tight rein on each piece that she works on, and her eye is so amazing,” Tampe said. “Her artistic side is just so great. I own at least eight pieces myself.”
Sutor’s dedication to her craft means that she puts a little bit of her personality into each of the pieces she makes. She wouldn’t design anything she doesn’t love herself, she said.
Sutor admitted this sometimes leads to a problem: she is unable to part with certain pieces after making them.
“This is my passion, and I have been so lucky to be able to turn it into a business,” Sutor said.
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