Spelling buttons - revisited

Regular readers of this blog may remember the entry about the six hole buttons which can make letters and numbers when sewn on. A conversation followed...

People wrote in to tell me how they made buttons or to say that they had found other sources for the buttons. Want to make six hole buttons of your own? Here is a link sent by a reader about just that. And here, in its entirety because it is so interesting, is what one reader sent in about buying buttons and making her own. 

"6 hole buttons can be found at ecobutterfly.com made from Tagua nut.

I make buttons from holly tree branches/twigs and dye them using natural dyes, then polish them with beeswax.  Easy to do if you have a circular saw, freshly cut wood and a drill. 5 holes in a circle can be attached making a star with the thread. 

It's a shame that you do not have many trees in the Shetland Isles. Bone would have been the resource perhaps or shells maybe."

How much fun!