Dorset Buttons

It is slightly ironic that, living in the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, I fell in love with these buttons...

"Dorset buttons were a traditional way of making buttons before the industrial revolution." Alix tells me. They were made by women as a cottage industry until a draper opened a centre in Blandford to centralise the selling. Unfortunately, the coming of the Indutrial revoloution and the arrival of machine-made mass-produced buttons all but killed off this intricate craft. It is fabulous to see that it hasn't died out completely! There are many patterns around, many flat, some hightopped. All of them amazingly intricate and beautiful.
I asked Alix how she got started..."I have always made things - knitting and sewing taught by my mum and sisters. I love fabric and yarn. I never think of myself as nimble but I adore making these Dorset Buttons. I have made some tiny ones just for the joy of doing it. I have a small daughter who is crafty and I hope I can teach her."



"Colour and pattern everywhere inspire me. I love to see how colours work together and how the piece grows. I love variegated threads that change and reveal themselves to you as you sew."



"Each button is made by sewing the thread round a ring. Depending on the thickness of the thread this can take some time. Then I wind the thread round to create the spokes. It takes a lot of practice to get the middle point dead centre. Then I sew the thread in between the spokes. There are many different patterns and colour combinations although sometimes the single rich colour is the best one."



Though traditionally they were made from rings of sheep horn and fine white thread, I have to say I do prefer Alix's more modern vibrant pieces!



Buy them here

Kanji

As well as all the new goodies at Boutonnerie I've got a fair stock of vintage buttons for sale too at Overspill. A while back I bought in some from a friend and had a happy day or so sorting, cleaning and counting. Yes, I play with buttons and get paid - does life get any better?

Anyway, deep in amongst these buttons were some Civil Defence ones, some British Red Cross ones and a few others that dated the collection to somewhere around the 1940s - 1950's. And there was this one:



The back is Bakelite or some other form of early plastic, as is the symbol on the front. What with the Mr and his business I'm getting moderately familiar with oriental bits and pieces and my hunch said 'Japanese' as opposed to Chinese or Korean.

But that was as far as I got. Trying to play snap on Google with kanji is no my idea of fun and a bit of a waste of time. Last night, though, I got chatting with Cindy and she cast a bit more light on things.

Now, traditional Japanese clothing doesn't have buttons. Things are folded and tied, elaborately, and apart from clips and bone fastenings on some armour pieces, buttons aren't really a feature.

But it seems the kanji (Cindy agrees most likely Japanese) is kotobuki, derived from the characters for 'long life' and 'celebration' and as such may well have been part of some sort of gift. A pouch perhaps, containing something for a special birthday? Maybe it marked a coming-of-age date? Perhaps even good wishes at a birth?

I had planned to sell this on, but I have to say I'm getting intrigued by it now. What is it? Where did it come from and how on earth did it end up in England?
I'm also wondering what to do with it. The silk bags over at Etsy were, originally, inspired by some Japanese folded patchwork. There isn't any obvious link there (except in my own mind) and I've recently been using Japanese dyeing techniques to colour-match thread for an antiques restorer.

I'm sitting writing this in a room filled with obi, sageo, a yari, katana and tanto and every sort of sword fitting you could imagine (and some you possibly can't). And a statue of Fudo-myoo standing in the corner.

Thinking about it, maybe this one isn't for sale after all!

Nix on ix

It's not so long ago that I was singing the praises of my (now ex) webhosts. I recommended them, I was delighted with them, I really thought they were the bees knees!
They started off small, had reasonable rates + top notch customer service. Then they grew.

And then I got a strange message from google saying my WP blog was blacklisted becuase of malware. huh? I spent 2 days working through the database trying to find the offending post. Customer Service at IX managed to tell me there was a problem, but nothing more. Never did find the problem and I had to abandon the blog.

A few weeks ago I found that boutonnerie.com had stopped appearing on google. ok, so we're small and new and were unlikely to be at the top of the rankings, but even googling for the name brought up nothing.

Then I couldn't log in to the admin section.

Then everything disappeared.

Then IX gave me a series of completely useless instructions and restored my files from a backup made 2 days after the database got wiped.

Then I found a new host.

While in the process of moving, the site on IX was hacked.

Then I moved even faster into the embrace (well, reasonable terms + topnotch customer service) of my new host.

So, if you are wondering where we've been, we've been moving. But I think we are settled now and I hope you'll drop by and see us!

Help!

I have it. For the next 2 months I have a babysitter and I can't tell you what a relief it is. Or how much I'm managing to get done in those 2 hours a day!

Boutonnerie is almost fully stocked now with all the pieces I have to hand. There is a new Maker Page, I have a new trade account opened.

And I might even have time to blog!

Maker Page - Alison

I've been so caught up inbuying new buttons, commissioning new buttons, photographing new buttons etc, this poor blog hasn't had all the attention it need. Poor lonely blog.

And so here is the first of the Maker Pages. There are 4 more to come and with luck there will be many more in the future...


Alison of AliBaliJewellery

Alison makes handcrafted silver jewellery from her home studio in Edinburgh. I was delighted when she agreed to make a set of exclusive pure silver buttons for Boutonnerie.

In her own words...
I have a pretty serious day job and I started making silver jewellery as a means to de-stress at the end of a busy day.I've always been what you would describe as 'artistic', doing a short stint at art school in the early 90's. I make jewellery that I would like to wear. I love colour and texture and that comes through frequently in my designs. It was my love of texture which inspired me to use precious metal clay, you can achieve textures with this material that would be pretty impossible with traditional silver smithing.


Precious metal clay is worked with whilst wet. At this stage you roll it, imprint it, shape it, and work out any textures that are required. It is left to dry before being reworked and sanded.



It is then fired, using either a kiln or a torch. The fine silver particles in the clay bind together to form fine silver (99% pure) which can then be polished to the desired finish.





The finished pieces are all on the Silver Button Page.

Introducing Linda

A new maker for Boutonnerie .

Linda, of LeafGreenHandmade, has been hard at work making sewing rolls for me to stock. Not only are these the ultimate gift for the new or disorganised seamstress (sorry - I refuse to use the word sewer!) but some feature handmade buttons, some are made from fabric samples that would otherwise have been tossed if I'd not rescued them. The ultimate in sustainability!

Linda's Maker Page is here and the sewing rolls are gradually being added here

Maker Pages and More!

After the weekend's victory over coding (yes, I'm allowed to crow. No, I'm not tellling you how long it took) I've been fighting through the little quirks of KompoZer and OS. This is not the fun bit.

However, we have the first of the fine silver buttons listed at http://boutonnerie.com/ and the extra photo pages up too.

Silver Spiral: http://boutonnerie.com/catalog/spiralextra.html and
Watermark: http://boutonnerie.com/catalog/waterextras.html

There are 3 more amazing silver buttons to come. Next week I start on a non-buttony addition to http://boutonnerie.com/