To those who love them, buttons are fascinating miniature works of art, even museum pieces to be collected and preserved as part of our social history.

Aficionados of the tiny treasures will gather at the National Button Society Show, from Aug. 4 to Aug. 11 at the Red Lion Inn at Jantzen Beach. The first five days of the convention are designated for button society members only; judging of button-collection competitions and business meetings will be held at that time.

The convention will officially open to the public Aug. 9, 10 and 11, with a schedule including lectures and workshops; more than 50 vendors will set up in the marketplace and in individual hotel rooms to buy and sell buttons. Organizers expect at least 500 members from across the United States to attend, and are hoping to attract thousands of visitors once the show opens.

“We have a Native American theme this year and we have a Native American storyteller coming,” said Holly Derderian, president of the Oregon City Button Club.

She said that the national society has more than 2,500 members and that Oregon button societies have about 125 members. She is hoping that having the national convention in Portland will boost membership and promote interest in buttons in general.

Portland has not hosted a national button convention since 1977, said Jocelyn Howells, a Happy Valley resident and a member of the Oregon City, Portland and Oregon button societies. She was on the national board of directors for a term and adds that it takes four to five years of planning to host a convention like this.

Preserving treasures

Derderian, a Lake Oswego resident, has been collecting buttons for 23 years, and said that anyone with a love of buttons, history and art should attend the convention and join local button clubs. The Oregon City Button Club’s 25 members celebrate a 50th anniversary next year.

Education is an important part of the club, Derderian said.

“It is a fun thing to go to a club and learn something new and then go back and look at your own collection,” she said. “I am constantly categorizing and re-categorizing.”

Derderian estimates that she has thousands of buttons, and one of her favorites is a tiny glass button shaped like a paperweight in miniature, with a glass bee inside.

Howells, who has been seriously collecting buttons for more than 30 years, said that she considers herself as both a mentor, helping people research the history of buttons and the materials they are made from, and a button steward.

“We are responsible for preserving these little treasures,” she said.

Howells has published three books cataloging her knowledge about the plastics used in button making and button materials in general.

Buttons “represent more than 400 years of culture and history; every facet of our lives is depicted in buttons,” she said noting that “every button tells a story about who wore it.”

For example, “women were kept at home in the early 1900s, and these were creative women, of ease, culture and class. They had to express themselves, and one of their favorite ways was through china painting,” Howells said.

She has a collection of china painted buttons that began as white porcelain blanks; women then used delicate brushes to paint flowers and other motifs on the buttons.

Each branch of this country’s military service for nearly 250 years has had its own uniform buttons, Howells said, noting that the “epitome of a button collector’s dream” would be to find one of the buttons that George Washington had made for his inauguration.

“That goes to the very heart of what our country means,” she added.

A poke box

Howells began collecting when she acquired her grandmother’s extensive button collection, and then joined button clubs.

Asked to pick her favorite button, Howells said, “I love all buttons.”

But she did admit that glass buttons have a special place in her heart, especially those in a class called “Gay 90s.”

These buttons represent the “Belle Epoque” period of time, when people were living the high life, Howells said. They are made from various kinds of metal, but they must have a large glass imitation jewel in the center.

Who should join a button club, or attend the national convention?

People who love art and artistic creations, she said, noting that buttons span a time period in miniature. Also, anyone who grew up like she did, playing with the buttons in her grandmother’s button box.

One of her favorite things about a convention is something called a poke box; this is where vendors will put buttons that are collectible, but not particularly valuable, in a box and let people just poke around.

“You can lose yourself in a poke box,” Howells said. “I love the button music, when you can hear people poking through the buttons at a button show.”

Fast Facts

The National Button Society presents Buttons: Myths and Legends — the 2012 National Convention

Aug. 4 to Aug. 11; the convention is only open to the general public on Aug. 9, 10 and 11

Venue: Red Lion Inn at Jantzen Beach

For a full schedule of events, workshops and lectures, visit nationalbuttonsociety.org.

The Oregon City Button Club meets at 9:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month at the Clackamas Housing Authority Community Room, at 13930 Gain St. in Oregon City.

For more information about Oregon button clubs, visit oregonbuttonsociety.org.