favorite shops: The Needle
April 9, 2009 at 12:14 pm | Posted in buttons!, favorite shops | 3 CommentsI thought I’d write up some of my favorite places to find vintage and new buttons… and the first shop I want to spotlight is The Needle, right here in Portland.
It’s a tiny shop full of fascinating books, antiques, and ephemera, including bowls full of vintage buttons to sift through and choose your favorites!
I met Myrna Goldware through my neighbor Randy — she is a button collector extraordinaire and generously shared her magnificent photographs with me to bring the Vintage Button Primer section of Button It Up to life.
And she curates some of the incredible finds at The Needle, including a fantastic rotating exhibit of buttons, photographs, cards,
and even a charm string from her own collection of treasures.
The shop offers two bowls of vintage buttons to sift through… one near the register has a mix of buttons for 25¢ apiece,
and the other is a “clearance” bowl priced at 10¢ each,
also with plenty of treasures.
Here’s what I found one afternoon — maybe 2/3 of these are from the 25¢ bowl and the rest from the 10¢. I could have happily spent another hour looking!
If you go, The Needle is open most afternoons from about 1-5. You can call ahead to find out the hours and plan a visit, and be sure to say hello to Myrna when you are there!
The Needle Thrift Shop
1420 SE 37th Ave (a half-block north of Hawthorne)
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 234-7662
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wOw if only i could get my hands on those. WAY too beautiful – i don’t think i would even be able to use them in a project.
i would keep them just too look at
Comment by jo— April 11, 2009 #
I am from the UK and visited Myrna one lunch time at “the Needle”.
A lovely person who welcomes visitors to her shop. She has a fantastic collection of buttons and will guide you to all the local Button societies.
(I hope to visit the big Portland Fayre in 2012.)
I recommend you pop in & see both Myrna & her buttons.
Have lunch with her – She knows all the best places to dine.
Lin
Comment by Lin Keska— April 14, 2009 #
[...] this month and it was spectacular! I had never been to a button show before, but Myrna Goldware (of The Needle fame) told me about it a few months ago, and I marked my calendar right away. I had Pearl in tow, [...]
Pingback by the Oregon State Button Society show! « button it up!— May 11, 2009 #