Buttons
Early craftsmen used engraving tools no larger than toothpicks to hand-tool dies for intricate button designs laden with exquisite detail.
Today,
computer-aided design and technology reduces tooling time for a new
design to two to three days. Still, hand tooling is, at times, as
indispensable as it was in the past.
Craftspeople
still make artful cuts by hand to produce high-domed buttons or designs
too creative to trust to a computer. The dies are fitted into stamping
presses, where button shells are embossed with designs. From there,
button shells are plated in gold, silver or chemical finishes before
they're polished, attached to separately produced backs, lacquered and
packed for shipping to customers around the world.