Wood and Antler Buttons
Favour Valley Woodworking has resurrected the traditional art of making buttons from locally available materials. Their buttons are made from local wood and antler, much of it found right here in Favour Valley. They are shaped and smoothed to slide easily through a button hole and are treated with natural tung oil to stand up to modern washing machines and dry cleaning processes.
Wood buttons are round or rectangular, oblong or "teapot" shaped and come in small, medium, large sizes as well as extra large decorative styles. Antlers are made into sliced buttons or antler tip toggles.
Button Details
Buttons are cut, polished on both flat surfaces, tumbled to smooth the edges and then the wood ones are soaked in a matte tung oil finish. Once dry the holes are drilled and the buttons are sorted by size and type. Generally they are sold on cards of six matching buttons. Large or specialty buttons are sold individually.
Button Care: Our wood buttons can be hand washed and air dried! If the surface loses it's sheen over time, a little furniture polish or beeswax and oil mixture will refresh the bright colors.
Holes: In medium and large buttons, holes are sized to accommodate thicker yarns up to a heavy worsted weight; but a heavy button hole, hand quilting or crochet thread also works well. Smaller buttons have holes large enough for fingering yarn or thread. By special request holes on larger buttons can be sized for bulky yarn, cordage or leather laces.
Environmental Statement
We at Favour Valley love the landscape and are inspired by the nature around us every day. Manufacturing a product, even on a tiny scale, does have environmental impacts. Our commitment is to minimize those impacts to the greatest extent possible. We gather as much of our raw materials as possible right here in Favour Valley, we source other materials such as lumber locally and use recycled paper wherever possible, and we avoid toxic products including conventional finishes. Our electricity comes from renewable sources as well. While we no longer have a waterwheel here in Oregon we are able to buy renewable energy, mostly from windmills, from the grid.
Beyond just the materials and processes we use we are committed to making products that can stand up to heavy usage over a long lifespan making them far more sustainable than mass produced alternatives.
Images courtesy of Favour Valley Woodworking