In 1622, an English soldier named Abraham Case retired to Shaftesbury in Dorset, England, and began to make buttons. The first Dorset buttons had a firm base covered in embroidered fabric. In the 1700s, Dorset introduced the crosswheel, which became the most famous of the Dorset button styles. Today we are fortunate to have inherited the legacy of the button techniques devised by Abraham Case and his workers. The plain and beaded crosswheel buttons described in this article are my adaptation of his techniques. The beaded crosswheels are light enough for earrings and can be joined together to make all sorts of jewelry. They can also be placed on the most delicate of hand-wovens, either for practical use or as decoration, in the same or selected contrasting yarns.
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