Badge Bomb recently kicked it with Tesha Beaudry, creator of “Cute Institute,” for a quick interview about her artistic inspirations and, of course, her love of buttons.

-What does it take for Badge Bombers to enroll in The Cute Institute?
Not more than 2 dollars; the price of a badge!

-What classes would I need to pass to attain a Master of Cute Arts?

For my students to get that far, they need to be hard working and loyal pupils for many many years. Having a sweet tooth always helps!

-Most of your designs seem inspired by a Japanese design aesthetic.  Can you pinpoint any specific moments of your life that inspired you to embrace this style?

One night, after a cupcake too many, I dozed off and I had vision of this cute pirate girl dressed in a bear costume that came to me with an important message: bring kawaii, cupcakes and joy to the world! That was my calling…

-Your mushroom buttons seem very Zen. Are you influenced by Eastern culture beyond the pen and paper?

I don’t consider myself a zen person, but I do seem to have been influenced a lot by eastern culture; I do martial arts, collect kung-fu flicks, have japanese tattoos and love japanese art and fashion….

-Who would win in a fight- a tough Samurai warrior or a brigade of smiley faced cupcakes?

I think the samurai would overdose on the cupcakes- the smiley ones are usually poisonous, so beware!

-Have you ever run across anyone wearing Cute Institute buttons?

Do my friends and parents count?! if so, yes and it makes me very very happy!

-Do you wear buttons yourself? If so, what was the first button you loved to death?

I wear them all the time! My favorite button I made has a closeup of my cat’s face. It was adorable! I put him with the rest of my badges during one of my craft sales for just for fun.  Believe it or not, someone bought it!

-How/where do you wear your buttons?

I tend to lose em’ often if I put them on my purse or hoody…  I’ve decorated some cute ballerina shoes, used them to attach my tops and dresses to my bra (yes, very classy, but practical!), and they work perfectly to replace that missing button on your pants. When I feel sweet, I’ll put on a cupcake badge, if I feel badass, I’ll put on a skull!

-Have you had any problems with fans trying to sneak off with handfuls of your dessert themed buttons?

I caught a bunch of ninjas one night trying to steal my new stash of pins. That didn’t end well!

-Have you had to expel anybody from the Cute Institute? I need to know what heinous acts to avoid- I pride myself on being a model student.

I rarely expel my pupils, so no need to worry!… But, I do not tolerate art theft. Just be original AND be yourself!!! cheers! +____+

Visit Tesha at The Cute Institute!

While participating in this years infamous SXSW Indie Rock extravaganza in Austin, TX, I had my eyes peeled for any festival goers with particularly interesting button stylez.  I figured someone would be thinking outside of the button box at a week-long festival showcasing the newest of new and hippest of hip in the music-verse.  It wasn’t until the final day of the festival that I spotted this beauty at the roller rink show on Cesar Chavez Blvd.

Matt, of Toronto based band dd/mm/yyyy (spoken aloud as day-month-year), doesn’t seem to think one button is enough, or even that the front of a button is what’s important.  To me, Matt’s DIY masterpiece is a “meta-button,” or a button about buttons; by velcro-ing smaller, building block buttons together to form one mega, franken-button, Matt forces us to focus on the buttons themselves rather than the images they display.  Thanks Matt for being so rad!  Check out dd/mm/yyyy’s myspace here. I recommend the “Imagine” video.

We wish we could check this out…  Badge Bomb button designer Noah Lyon’s work will be featured in an upcoming event showcasing works that prove pens are much mightier than swords:

“An exhibition of pen and/or marker drawings including photographs of the pens used to make them.  The over one hundred drawings in this exhibition cover a broad range of pens from the generic ball point to the traditional rapid-o-graph and feather quill to the modern array of jell and artists’ pens.”

Peep these links for more info and radness: 

Retard Riot , Lump Gallery , Lump Gallery Blog , PENNED flickr

And don’t forget about Badge Bomb’s “Retard Riot” button series, straight from the brain of Noah Lyon!

Retard Riot buttons on sale through Badge Bomb and manufactured in the USA by One Inch Round Buttons.

Hey Badge Bombers! Streets of Jeremyville button sets have arrived and they look sweet! We’re going crazy over this fresh Badge Bomb loot.  Behold!

Streets of Jeremyville goodies will be available for pre-sale at Badge Bomb’s booth at the POOLTRADESHOW and soon here at Badge Bomb.

All Streets of Jeremyville eventually lead here.

Manufactured in the USA by One Inch Round.

Look, these came out awesome! Thanks Bro Prints, Clean die cut!

Even though stickers are an inferior enemy combatant of buttons, we’re giving them away for free with every order in an effort to embrace product diversity and dominate more than your garments.

Actually - we’re lying, we just hope you put them all over things you own, for sport, just like we did the second we opened the box!