When buttons go bad

I have a pot that I put all the rejects that I make into.

Some are just fine - I've half made a button in a workshop for instance, as an example so that people can see the process. But, I'm not likely to finish it because it was illustrating a particular step or technique.

Or perhaps I've used a silk that's too fine for the design - so the definition just wasn't there, or the thread was too thick and just wasn't right, making the button look horrid.

Sometimes it is about colour - the colours just don't go well once they've been made and so I have to start again.

And at other times, there's a mistake. Something that can't be fixed at the time, and jumps out at me in such a way that I don't want any one to see them!

I will often just cut off the threads right away and start again. But, if I am on a roll - or I want to learn from the mistake or process - I will keep the reject for a while. And then it goes into the pot to be reclaimed.

The above is perhaps about 3 or 4 years worth, and all satisfyingly cut away and a pile of moulds ready to be used again.

If it's too good to be true...

For those of you who buy Au Ver a Soie silks from us, please be on the lookout for outlets / people selling them cheap.

It turns out that between Christmas and New Year, the Au Ver A Soie factory in France was robbed. This is a huge blow to the small company, who really had managed to get themselves back on a good footing after losing virtually everything in a major fire a few years back.

They announced this theft on their social media pages, and it seems from the translations that the majority of what was taken was their Soie de Paris, Tram and Perlee, along with their sewing silks, "surfine" and 1003.

I am not sure how the stolen items were packaged, but they do have loose skeins, and have been using more and more of the reels as you can see in the image above. If the mini perlee has been taken, these are on little wooden spools, and is the tram silk (often used for fly fishing), and occasionally cardboard spools are used. The image shows some of the options.

Please - if you see any of their products sold at prices too good to be true on outlets such as eBay, etc, let them know at info@auverasoie.com - I am sure they would rather be falsely notified of a real seller then not told about a seller that is actually a thief.

Of course, this may mean that some colours and types are not able to be ordered for a while, as they will need to get their stocks back on track.