although I have been trying not to look too hard at any Bujold communities, because I'm only two thirds of the way through the Vorkosigan series and don't want to end up accidentally spoiling myself by chancing upon the wrong fic summary, heh.

You can always be a member of a community, with posting access, but just not watch a community! I did that for a while with some of my Heroes ones because I was afraid of being spoiled.

I had never thought about hand-carved buttons before. But you're right! lol