JUL Ainu Stud Buttons (Set of 3)

Handmade Fair Trade in Indonesia & the United States

White brass & Leather

Spiral stud buttons - 1 inch square

Weight - .1 ounce each

The Ainu people (Ainu means "human") are a group of indigenous people who have occupied the northern parts of the Japanese archipelago as well as parts of the Kamchatka peninsula. Hokkaido is currently the primary center of modern Ainu culture.  I became interested in Ainu people through their magnificent textile traditions and the stud buttons that make up the Ainu collection are inspired by a visual vocabulary of motifs that Ainu women deploy in improvisational, highly personal designs appliqued and embroidered on traditional robe forms called Atush. 

Spiral forms represent gentle, flowing energy.