Notions Pin: Survival Jewelry Line

The notions pin

I haven't created an assemblage pin in quite a while, though I used to show them in a couple of galleries when I was really cranking them out. Quite frankly my junk supply is running thin, so when I had the chance to hit the last hour of the Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale and take advantage of the "everything you can stuff in a large paper bag for $5" deal in the sewing department at the end of the sale I jumped on it. My bag contained wonders untold, including the following little items from some notions bins:

This pin practically made itself, and sort of fits into the survival clothing/jewelry lines found elsewhere on this blog since the little ivory bakelite thingy (I actually have no idea what this object is) has a lot of red thread on it, which I decided to leave in place as part of the piece, so the pin wearer is armed for any sudden sewing emergencies.  I also have no idea what the metal pieces were originally, but I like their irregular, battered quality.

A few scraps of metal chain, a couple of jump rings, and an old pin backing, and the job was done.

Gluing on the pin backing

If you know what the white thing was originally used for, let me know.

And the story evolves... Apparently this is actually an emergency lace-making pin. Blog reader lewmew informs me this is a tatting shuttle, which I googled to learn about tatting. The following image from Gutenberg strikes my fancy.