Knitting Dragonflies

I’ve never been able to find some buttons that I thought looked good on this sweater! I’ve tried wood, metal with design, and various plastic. Finally I thought I would try to make some myself. Above is my Lion Neck Cardigan , with my buttons sewn on! I modified the pattern collar, see my rav link above. This was a fun top down pattern by Wendy Bernard. I decided to make some more buttons with engraved branches on them, and some larger buttons to paint on. Here are my buttons, ready to go into the oven. I roughly scratched some branches and leaves with a toothpick. And then made the button holes by sticking a cuticle stick into the back and front and smoothing the hole out. I made 5 buttons with branches on them for my sweater. Lion Neck Cardigan. (amazon book link) I rubbed in with my hands a acrylic green, using the paint brush to really make sure it got into all of the little cracks. Too green! So I added a burnt umber to my glaze and washed it over it. (I did this by us...

I have been looking for the “right” buttons for a sweater. I can’t find what I want so I decided I would play around and see if I could create some. I thought of trying polymer clay. I bought a neutral color because I wanted to embed the design into it, and then bring it out with paint. First I purchased some Polymer Clay I made 3 simple buttons by: Warming the clay up until it was pliable and made a flattened piece of clay, like you would a sugar cookie, approx. 1/4 inch thick. I think used a sharpie pen, (the fat kind) as a rolling pin to even it out and make the top portion smooth. I used a bottle cap (from some body lotion) to punch the button out. A cuticle stick to make the button holes. I also used the cuticle stick to try and scrape a design into the button. I wanted to make a bamboo like design. (I made the design first and then punched the holes), Go into both sides of the button with your stick for the holes. Now bake according to the instructions on your clay...