Review: Wooden Buttons by Pymatuning Crafts

Sometimes I'm restrained and clever and I buy buttons after knitting the button holes or choosing a sewing project. Sometimes I throw caution to the wind and buy buttons because they are beautiful and perfect and gorgeous. This may have happened just recently...

I found my way to Pymatuning Crafts after being enabled during an episode of the Stockinette Zombies podcast. Leigh makes gorgeous rustic wooden buttons (as well as shale and antler buttons and wood hang tags). It wasn't easy to choose, but eventually I settled on sixteen Blue Spruce buttons. I have a fondness for Blue Spruce that goes back to a potted Christmas tree I had as a kid that I loved because it was so blue and prickly and awesome, and then Dad used an airbrush thing to paint the deck and my precious spruce was below the railing and it got totally coated in paint and died but because it was grey-blue paint we didn't notice until right before Christmas, and then I was sad and always wanted another one but nope, it was all Douglas Fir, all the time... maybe that's an overshare? 

Anyway, there was a point where I had about forty buttons in my cart and was very seriously considering just buying them. Not only are there loads of gorgeous wood varieties to choose from (most with their bark still on!); these buttons are also made from dead wood branches from Leigh's own property, through a very simple, safe, nature-friendly process.

The shipping was fast and friendly, and I was so pleased with my buttons when they arrived. Look!

This is only a few of them, of course.

The colour and grain are beautiful and the buttons are thick enough to feel strong but still so light. There aren't any sharp edges. My favourite part? The smell! The buttons haven't been varnished or anything - just treated with mineral oil - so they smell beautifully of crisp, woodsy, yummy blue spruce.

So what could make me even happier with these buttons? The price was amazing. Sixteen buttons, plus shipping, set me back $12.80. And there was a free sample in the package too! Four apple wood buttons, just as gorgeous, with a lovely smooth bark. I don't like the smell of deciduous woods all that much, but I do like the lack of weird chemical smell and feel.

So, twenty buttons, plus shipping, worked out to about $0.64 each. You can't get nice buttons that cheaply at a big box store, and these are natural, hand crafted, and the money directly supports the artisan.

So go buy them. Pymatuning Crafts. Go.

And yes, I do have projects in mind for them, I'm not just stashing. Really.