We’ve been really busy in the shop getting ready for Holiday Market. We’ve been creating carved inspirational magnets, earrings, signs, pendants, but mostly lots and lots of buttons!
We’ve been loving making buttons lately and loving seeing what you create with them! Last week we were so excited to see our Dogwood buttons shown on the Annabel Sweater on SouleMama Blog. Then we saw some of our Sassafras buttons on a cardigan that Heike, from Germany, knitted for her little girl.
I created a page with links to blog posts showing our buttons on different creative projects. (If you need some inspiration to keep your creative juices flowing, check them out!) They are so fun to see! The creativity and talent amazes and inspires me (and has sparked some craft ideas!)
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As Jeff and I have been making more buttons, we’ve been wondering…
.How many buttons in a set do people prefer?
.Which woods are people’s favorites?
.Would large, single buttons be used?
.What size buttons do people want?
Basically, we would really love some feedback!
Do you use buttons in your creative projects? What are you looking for? We want your input.
We’ve been posting a variety on our shop to see what people like. I’ve been posting sets of buttons- from 3 in a set, up to 9. They all seem to be popular. I posted a single large button and it sold, which made me excited. We’ve made tiny, small, medium, large and larg(er) sizes. The ones where we cut the shapes (not branches that we slice with the bark still on), we made ovals and circles. We’ve used many different types of wood. We want to give lots of choices.
There is a lot of work that goes into our buttons. We sand them on more grits than I can keep track of (Jeff remembers I’m sure.) Jeff shapes each one- some are more rounded with a “high dome” and some are more level. I put them all on cards, which has been such a great way for us to display them in our booth.
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Jeff and I adore working with wood and are so passionate about all the different types. Visit us at our booth, ask about a wood, and you’ll see what I mean. We could talk and talk and talk about what we love about each of the different woods and the story behind each one. Some people get kind of bored, and others are wood lovers and their eyes light up too.
Here’s a preview of a few of the woods we’ve been using:
Yew Wood
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This Yew Wood is from our front yard. Awhile back, the goats got out and ate the bush down. I had read it was poisonous to goats so we were really grateful that they didn’t get sick from it. They did manage to kill the bush though, so we cut it down. When we did, we discovered a real surprise. The wood was gorgeous! Like drop-your-jaw gorgeous. We let it cure. Jeff started slicing the branches. They had the most amazing, vibrant reddish hue in the center, and a lighter border surrounding that. Then with the natural bark around the outside…they made for some of our very favorite buttons. We have a limited supply of this wood. We savor each piece we work with.
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Sassafras Wood
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The wood we use the most for buttons is reclaimed Sassafras wood. It comes from our friend, who is a broom maker in Eugene. (He made some of the brooms in the Harry Potter movies.) He gets lots of odds and ends (basically “scraps”) that he gives away for kindling. We stop by here and there to pick some up and make him gifts with it as a thank you. We don’t use it for kindling, it’s too precious! We turn it into buttons, earrings, pendants, magnets and more! There is a wide variance in the wood, even though it’s all Sassafras, each branch can look so different. The buttons we make with Sassafras are less expensive because we have an abundance of the wood to work with. One of the funnest things about Sassafras is the amazing bark it has. For some reason, this wood reminds me of hobbits.
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Cedar Wood
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This cedar wood is from the cedar trees we trimmed in the backyard, and saved some of the branches. I love the warmth of this cedar wood. It feels….welcoming, inviting, comforting, cheerful. Perhaps it’s just the way that cedar wood stirs my soul. It’s one of my very favorite woods (although I find myself saying that more often these days about a few different woods, but really can you ever have too many favorites? I don’t think so.) I’m amazed at all the rings of growth in such a small size. The wood is very soft and pretty easy to work with. And the smell… mmm!
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Holly Wood
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This Holly Wood also came from doing some trimming in our yard! It’s amazing how many buttons we make from trimming branches around the place. The Holly Wood has a nice light hue. It’s a very dense wood and takes a nice shine when we polish it. We like to joke with each other and say aren’t our “Hollywood” buttons so hip? (hehe. Any opportunity to laugh, even if it’s corny!)
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Apple Wood
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We saved this apple wood from a pile left to rot. It’s a fun wood to work with. Some pieces are a warm honey brown with a reddish tint and others are more beige. Each different button has had a unique grain. It’s fall and we’re eating lots of apples, so it makes me appreciate working with this pleasant wood even more.
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Dog Wood
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Yes, this wood is naturally a bright vibrant yellow! I love how cheery and bright it is. We get this wood from the same place we get the Sassafras- our broom making friend. We have a limited supply of this also.
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A few more from the homestead:
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Lilac Wood
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One set of the tiniest buttons Jeff has ever made (so tiny they only have one hole) in lilac wood from our yard.
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Huckleberry Wood
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You all know how much we love eating huckleberries in the surrounding woods this time of year. Well, now we’ve discovered that when we trim the bushes, they make good buttons too!
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Flowering Plum Wood
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There is a flowering plum tree by the front pond that is covered in beautiful pink blossoms every spring. As a branch cured, a beautiful spalted swirling design covered the wood. Jeff refers to spalted woods as “painted by mother nature.”
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Some Exotics:
(All the exotic woods we work with are reclaimed. We mostly work with local woods, many of which are also reclaimed. We have a small amount of exotic wood, so it feels like a rare treat to work with them.)
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Cocobolo Wood
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Cocobolo wood has amazing colors- deep brown tones and vibrant, fiery reds and oranges. The wood reminds me of a storm with all the strong swirling colors. It can be a challenge to photograph, the pictures never seem to do it justice. Jeff says it smells like beeswax when he carves it.
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Ebony Wood
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Great for those wanting black buttons. The pieces we’ve been working with were leftover pieces from a guitar maker, that were going to be thrown out. We make use of every little piece of this wood! With all the sanding we do, it truly shines!
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Lignum Vitae Wood
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Lignum Vitae comes in a wide variety of colors- brown, green (yes green!), and what I refer to as blonde (shown above.) We haven’t seen this light hue in it very often, so it felt like a treasure.
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Purpleheart Wood
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This wood is naturally purple! So cool! It is also very difficult to photograph, never seeming to truly capture the amazing purple color.
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That’s a few of the woods we’ve been working with lately and creating buttons with.
What’s coming up?
What’s coming up?
Buttons in Birdseye Maple Burl, Naturally Shed Deer Horn, and oh-so-much more!
Which woods do you like?
What size buttons do you like?
How many in a set do you prefer?
What projects do you like to use buttons for?
Do you ever use single buttons?
Do you prefer rounds or ovals?
Bark or no bark?
If you have something to say about buttons, please share!
Thanks so much for taking the time to give us some feedback!! It has been really helpful!
We appreciate it!
I generally make stuff for little ones, so sets of 5 or 6 small (3/4″) buttons work best for my projects. But I do use large ones for some knitted things–And I love using wood buttons for those projects. 🙂
As for types of wood–I like to see the wood grain, so I rarely buy ebony or darker woods. I love the lilac, cedar, sassafras and yew! And I’ve never seen the purpleheard wood, but those are beautiful!
These are breathtaking works of art! They are so truly beautiful! I love the Yew Wood, Sassafras, Cedar, and Dogwood. The Apple Wood is lovely too! I think I just love them all. I would mostly be using buttons for knitted garments I make. I would most likely use an average of six medium sized buttons for an adult sweater. I tend to draw to larger buttons in groups of two for a strong accent. I love both with and without the bark. I also love the round and oval. Do you ever create a toggle button style? That would be nice also. Hope this is helpful.
I bought three of the large buttons, Scotch broom with bark,. Jeff had carved lovely trees on each button which made them enchanted. I have been using them one at a time to embellish baskets. I recently placed one on a Cedar bark rain hat that I made for myself. When I was working with the hat, I heard that I should use the spruce root that I had gathered at the coast. The roots told me to use the special button. I realized that I really wanted that button for myself and I proudly stitched it onto the hat, a little off center, just like me! Sheila Tasker
What a wonderful button post.
They are all so beautiful….
I use buttons in differnt sizes and also single buttons.
for childrens clothes smaller and for grown-ups bigger ones and single buttons when they are special.
a loveley weekend to you and your “boys”:)
So hard to comment on favourites because they are all stunning. The exotic woods are beautifully unique – I especially love the purpleheart. The yew may be my favourite although the sassafras are high up there, too. The plum wood is very cool – the markings remind me of a map and I love the simplicity of the apple wood. Soo…yeah, I love them all…
I generally use a set of 5-8 buttons on sweaters (in medium – large sizes). I also like a single large and unique button as a special addition to a hat or other accessory.
I think I usually prefer round buttons to oval and the bark question would depend on the project. I do think the bark is a beautiful and special addition.
It’s all very beautiful – you are gifted artists! (Wonderful photos, too!)
Love, R
I think they are all beautiful! I think different woods speak to different people. You and Jeff really capture the beauty in each wood. Can’t wait to order some for Christmas and birthdays. I’m going to make some on my own, but some of your gorgeous types of wood we do not have here . Many blessings to your lovely family.
Wow! I so loved this post. Came to see your moment and got totally distracted in a wonderful way 🙂 I have never seen anything like this and I think it’s wonderful. I have bookmarked this post to share with my husband. I wonder if I could get him to cut some wood for me to dabble a little bit with. If so, I’ll holler at you to find out how to polish 🙂 Thanks so much for such an insightful post. I really enjoyed it!
I LOVE the buttons!! I am going to place an order for xmas, I just need to figure out which ones I want (so many choices). I love the ones with the bark on them.
Nice post, great pictures darling. Things I thought to add was that the Holly wood is only that wonderful white color because I stripped off all the bark. (A tip from a woodworking friend Reed) . Thing is if you leave the bark on, the wood turns grey….he told me that, and the part of the twig I didn’t take the bark off of, was grey.
OH yeah, and did you notice the lilac buttons still have moss on em, pretty cool looking.
I love the way you put pictures of the plants with the woods….
I adore you.