Recently, I’ve been getting into making mosaics with shells that I collect on the beach. The thought occurred to me that mosaics can be made with found objects like buttons.

The jar of buttons I was given after college immediately came to mind. I was living in a huge loft in Westchester, New York, with a bunch of people – some I knew, some I didn’t.

There was one girl (actually a young woman) who generally kept to herself. She was friendly enough and we’d chat from time to time. Her room was filled with an assortment of interesting objects, including a glass jar filled with old buttons.  She was an artist.

A couple of weeks after I moved in, I heard she was moving out. There were whisperings that she had a drug problem. This surprised me since she seemed pretty “with it” whenever I talked to her. Maybe just a bit down.

On the day she was leaving, her dad came to get her. She said goodbye and asked me if I would like her jar of buttons. She seemed to be casting off her old life – at least trying to. I said, “Sure.” People’s collections always interested me.

I do wonder about her from time to time. Was she really an addict? Or something else I sometimes feared, was she suicidal? Did she make it in the end? I don’t know how I could ever find out. I don’t even remember her name.

All I have is the jar of buttons she gave me. It was down in my basement for years, picking up those musty smells that objects often get when left sitting for too long.

Now I’m washing them to try to get rid of the smells so I can use them to create something. I think she’d like that, since she was an artist. I may even call the piece something like, “The Buttons of a Lost Girl”. As I make it, I’ll be hoping that she found her way through the woods.