In the autumn of 2023, we were introduced by Diane Richardson, founder of and inspiration behind Sseams, to Adam Robertson, who together with Nina Falk, created the Kalopsia Collective in Dunfermline as a textile artist collective back in 2012. Its mission was to collaborate with others who shared their own values and mission adding new insights and skills as they went.

The response was highly supportive which led them to expand the work they did to manufacturing for third parties, launching the KC Manufacturing service in 2016. Its remit was to improve their clients’ material efficiency and product sustainability efforts with an emphasis on stock and material re-purposing.

Operating as a registered social enterprise, Kalopsia supplies a range of clients from start-ups to luxury brands with high-quality, ethical and sustainable accessories and apparel from their standardised product collection.

Keen to help them expand even further we looked at ways to support them in their enterprise and identified the absence of a button-holing machine as a key obstacle to widening their product portfolio. Naturally, as the leading maker of natural material buttons in the UK, we were sympathetic to their plight. So, we were invited to join the collective by supplying just such a machine. Keen to help the UK manufacturing sector succeed, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse.

So, just before Easter 2024, we arranged for a fully reconditioned button-hole machine to be sent to Dunfermline, ready and primed for the tasks at hand. We are all delighted with the result and are really looking forward to following their new-found success in the months and years to go.

We would love for you to get in touch with Adam at KC who would be super-keen to support your sustainable manufacturing needs. He can be contacted via email at info@kalopsia.co.uk

Just a quick note to let you know that we will be exhibiting at the Textile Forum in a couple of weeks again. We met so many old and new friends and customers at the last event back in September last year that we just had to be there again. So, make a date in your diary for Wednesday 13^th and Thursday 14^th March 2024 and head off to One Marylebone, NW1 4AQ (same place as last time). The nearest tube station is Great Portland Street. Entrance to the event is entirely free, so no excuses.

Events like these are a great way to meet many people in a very short time. We can get to know our customers and their needs much better, while they can see for themselves all the exciting things we are working on at our factory. How can you resist the invitation?

See you there!

As many of our customers know, we have been wanting, planning and working on making horn buttons for some time. But it hasn’t been easy. When we acquired the last remaining specialist horn button-making machines in the country after James Grove’s demise in 2012, we discovered we had everything except for one critical (as it turned out) machine – a horn grinder.

It doesn’t sound much, but what it does is prepare the diameters of each and every blank to be turned so that they are all identical in size. You wouldn’t think that a 1 or 1.5mm difference in diameter is important until you try it. And then you realise that the collets which pick up the blanks and introduce them to the cutters don’t do so properly. It means that some blanks aren’t loaded at all, others are loaded at angles, and others still get stuck and won’t release. And this has caused us an unbelievable amount of frustration, downtime and despair. So much so, that we have regularly postponed our efforts to keep up with other orders.

But, things are about to change. Having just returned from meetings with the good folks at Bonetti in Italy, we are now making plans to have the very latest horn grinding machine sent over soonest. It will need some training and some commissioning before it will be ready to use, but this is a major new development for us. Not only is it the first new machine order we’ve placed, but it is designed to help us make the highest quality horn buttons in the UK once again so that we can finally supply those who have been patient in the wait. More news to follow soon…