I haven't blogged in a few days as we have been too busy with things to stop and write about it. By the end of this blog post I think you will know why. We have had a lot of exciting things happen lately and something even more exciting starting tomorrow so stay tuned for our next post. For a hint you can check out this blog post by Knot-sew-cute.
We have been working on some new button styles and sometimes a new idea or inspiration can come from the most unlikely places. Dave was shopping around for a new car and found this Kia Soul that is just right for our lifestyle. It is not only fun to drive but also works well for the gear that we are always hauling around. They first showed us a grey one and of course our last car was grey and so I had to ask if they had anything in a fun color. They happened to have this bright red one which we both really love. So now we can say we are also "2 Good Soul Mates" -- lol.
We have been working on some new button styles and sometimes a new idea or inspiration can come from the most unlikely places. Dave was shopping around for a new car and found this Kia Soul that is just right for our lifestyle. It is not only fun to drive but also works well for the gear that we are always hauling around. They first showed us a grey one and of course our last car was grey and so I had to ask if they had anything in a fun color. They happened to have this bright red one which we both really love. So now we can say we are also "2 Good Soul Mates" -- lol.
So what does this have to do with making buttons? Well the Kia Dealer in Kamloops happens to be only one block from Donna's Yarn & Craft. We happened to mention to several guys at the dealership about the buttons we make that Donna sells and they were very interested. We showed them some samples and that led to an idea. They explained to us how they wear these really nice dress shirts but they all have these boring and usually white buttons on them. Since they do not wear ties anymore, it would be really cool if we could come up with some really funky buttons for their shirts in colors to coordinate. We thought it was a neat idea as well so as soon as possible we started experimenting.
We decided to use some of Dave's shirts to start as we needed to make them in the right size. We discovered that making this type of button is a little more challenging since they are so small. When creating a cane and reducing it down to only 12mm, the pattern becomes very small and difficult to see.
This is the first set we did for a light blue shirt that Dave had.
We then decided to make some in silver and black shown here: The little solid black buttons are for the collar tips and sleeve plackets to replace those extra tiny ones. We made these in a solid color and with a shank to add a little contrast and style.
And these are a few more button style samples we have been experimenting with in brighter colors:
So soon we should be turning some men's shirts from blah to bazinga!
2 comments:
Hi!
I was wondering if you've done any testing with different brands of clay when making buttons as they will be washed/dried on the shirts...or even dry cleaned. If not, have you experienced any issues with the brand of clay you use?
Congrats on the new ride! :-)
We have made thousands of buttons over the past few years with no problems of breakage, etc. I have made buttons for some of my shirts that I have been wearing for years and have gone through the washer and dryer many times without a problem. We understand that the shirts are washed and dried a lot and as long as the clay is baked properly they should hold up without a problem. Of course they should never be dry cleaned as the chemicals are so harsh but we are finding that people are using dry cleaning less these days than before and not a problem.
We mainly use Kato clay as it can take a much higher temperature. I have even ironed several shirts with the buttons and placed the hot iron on the buttons to see what would happen and they were not affected whatsoever.
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