I’m not sure it’s normal to get so excited over BUTTONS?!!

There’s quite a story with these so, I decided to blog about them…

A few years ago I met Jon Reeves at Wool at Portsoy where he demonstrated spinning natural art yarn with wool from his own flock of Shetland sheep. (You can find some of his hand spun art yarn at the Moray Reach Out Yarn Shop in Buckie).

The following year, we met again, and this time Jon was representing the local charity, Moray Reach Out. We chatted about his new role as a Project Manager within the charity who provide work and training opportunities for vulnerable adults throughout Moray and the North East.

The charity work with adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues and through various enterprises in wool spinning, upcycling of pallets and recycling projects, it enables these people to achieve fulfilment and success. I was intrigued and have followed the work they have been doing ever since.

A few weeks ago I happened to see an appeal for a volunteer to help the charity with a new initiative and jumped straight in! Not like me ;-)

So back to the buttons…..

Jon runs a farm and had pruned back some trees and got to thinking that the guys at Moray Reach Out could perhaps make use of the waste branches as they already do a lot of recycling and woodwork. They got to work and with a bit of trial and error, produced these stunning natural art buttons. They are made with a variety of hard woods including apple, cherry and ash.

Slices of hard wood are cut by the team, holes are drilled into them and they are sanded and varnished with a natural osmo oil. They are then sewn onto cards and are ready for sale.

I spent a day up in Buckie a few weeks ago and had the pleasure of watching Jon and Kevin, produce some buttons. Hearing more about what Moray Reach Out do, and seeing the guys in action really inspired me to get involved with this project.

I decided there and then to volunteer some of my time to help with the marketing and distribution of these beautiful buttons (If you look closely you can even see some of the places where Jon’s sheep have nibbled at the bark!)

I used some samples in a couple of projects to test out how practical these could be, first on a baby cardigan and then on a wool wrap where the button are purely decorative.

For the baby cardigan (Beyond Puerperium by Kelly van Niekerk) using a naturally dyed skein of blush pink merino which was hand-dyed by the lovely Dwynwen of Loch Ness Knitting. I think they work really well together and I was pleased to see that the small ones could be functional too.

They can be used for a variety of craft projects and they really suit the natural art yarn in this hat, spun by one of the volunteers at the charity.

The bigger buttons are probably more suited to being decorative pieces and I found that they were the perfect proportion for this Skye Wrap that I made recently.

I’ll be stocking these in the workshop and at yarn festivals throughout the year but I’ll also be getting in touch with my usual stockists and other yarn shops over the next week or so, to send out some samples and get a bit of feedback.

If you’d be interested in stocking these Natural Art Buttons, or have any questions about this initiative, please get in touch with me at info@cookstoncrafts.com

**For transparency, a minimum of 80% of the proceeds from sale of art yarn and buttons on this website go directly to Moray Reach Out who are a registered charity. Distribution of buttons to other wholesalers is purely on a voluntary basis and my time involved in this is completely free of charge. **