Crochet Cowl Pattern Using our Buttons

Kim and Tara of Knot Sew Cute Design Shop create the most fabulous crochet patterns.  Kim just published her latest pattern -- this gorgeous v-shaped cowl which shows off our handcrafted buttons in the woodgrain pattern.  Don't you love this picture?  Our buttons never looked so good!  To see more of their crochet patterns, you can check out their Etsy Shop, or visit their blog where they have links to the many other shops they are available (column on right hand side).

We make the buttons shown here in assorted textured patterns.  They are available in a rich antique shade of brown....

... and for those who prefer more color, we make them in bright and muted shades as well.

More Faux Wood and Leather

After making the buttons in our new faux wood and leather, I decided to play with it a little more and see what else I could do with it.

Here are some scarf clips in two different shapes.  I just listed these in our Etsy shop.

The spring loaded scarf clip ring is available at Shades of Clay and I have a free tutorial on our blog (click here) on how to attach them as they can be a bit tricky.

Here is the same technique and pattern in a shawl pin.

The texture sheet we used to make these items is a favorite of mine.  It is a design by my friend, Wendy Orlowski, called Feather Boa and is available at Shades of Clay.

You will notice a difference in the two shawl pins shown.  The one on the left was made by impressing the clay from the texture sheet.  The one on the right was made from an inverse texture sheet I made from the original.  I discovered that the inversion texture created an "innie" that when antiqued with acrylic paints afterwards gives the more tooled leather or carved wood look.

Matching Colors

One thing about polymer clay is that once you are hooked, you start looking in all sorts of places for items you can use as tools or for adding textures. Several years ago I found this toothbrush holder and decided to use it on my table to hold some of my clay tools.  I was staring at it one day and wanted to see if I could replicate the pattern so played around and made a texture sheet from clay. 

I was using it to make some of my textured tube beads like the ones below.

Now, several years later, I decided to pull out my texture sheet and see how it would look as a button. "Antiquing" them with paints gives them a carved wood or tooled leather appearance.

I love the rich brown color of these but was thinking of experimenting with other colors.  Then I had a request from Donna's Yarn & Craft to match the teal blue color of this skein of yarn for a sweater that Elsie, Donna's mom and store partner, is knitting.

I really love this color and got carried away with making extra buttons in a variety of shapes and styles.

Faux Wood and Leather

We just added some new designs to our button collection that have a wood or tooled leather look.  I've been wanting to work on this new project for some time but when we started getting requests from the wool shops it was the jump-start that I needed to finally get at it.

These are quite a change from the bright Pantone colors I've been mixing up, but is nice to create something different.  Right now we are making enough of these for the stores that sell our buttons as well as our Etsy shop.

We do quite a bit of custom work and plan to write a future blog post on the joys ???? of doing it.

Zipper Charms

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