Artisan-made buttons, naturally
In a world of global, industrialised garment production, scale is the dominant factor – a trait which impacts button-makers as much as all others in the supply chain. Their output is driven by volume and cost in which the least expensive materials become the default choice. This inevitably means vast runs, running into the millions, of polyester (and similar petro-chemical-based materials) buttons.
Set against this ‘norm’, Courtney & Co is quite a novelty. Firstly, it is less than a decade old (established after the demise of James Grove & Sons Ltd, Britain’s then-leading button-maker, in 2012 after 155 years of trading). These days, button-makers are fewer and farther between and growing in size as consolidation to feed global demand dictates. Start-ups are almost non-existent, too, given the capital costs involved.
And secondly, it only makes buttons made from natural, sustainable, bio-degradable materials (unlike polyester) – corozo, Codelite® (milk casein) and horn, and even uses walnut shells, maize husks, wooden pegs and other natural materials in the finishing processes. 
It has been quite an ordeal getting this far as the skills of button-makers past have largely disappeared as companies have folded and their employees have retired. Employing 5 members of staff, Courtney &Co’s combined experience in button-making was zero when they started. But, through a combination of help from former Grove employees and the suppliers of the specialist machines used in button-making, the company has overcome the odds to now be making some of the finest quality artisanal buttons available.
Each process needed to be learned from scratch - from rectifying the ‘round’ blanks (they are not all perfectly round) used to make buttons; through to form tools which turn the shape of the buttons front and back; to the myriad of finishing materials used to matt, scour and polish the newly-produced buttons; to the dyeing of buttons using Oeko-tex 100 standard dyes to match customers’ colour palettes; and to etching corporate names and even logos on to the finished article.
Those involved, Andrea and David Courtney, together with Steve, Lise and Nithin are passionate about their work. It is focused on quality rather than quantity. It is based upon care and attention, not simply automation, which extends throughout the value chain, from the Matapalo community in Ecuador’s rainforest where the corozo (tagua nut) is sourced, through to the company’s recent involvement with the Kalopsia Collective in Dunfermline where it supplied a button-holing machine to help the company (which itself specialises in repurposing old stock or materials into new merchandise) to expand its product offering to clients.
Producing around a million buttons per year, Courtney & Co is a minnow among giants. The largest factories would turn out more than this on any given day. But for those in the trade, Courtney & Co is becoming a ‘go-to’ supplier of ethical and high-quality natural buttons, weaving Courtney & Co’s ethos and story into the treads of their own unique stories and journeys.
Text by David Courtney of Courtney & Co
Images courtesy of Courtney & Co
Find out more:
www.courtneyandco.uk