All sorts of brooches

Well, that's it for another year of Open Studios for me. This last weekend was much busier than the first - plenty of lovely people who stayed a long time and showed lots of interest. Sales were still way down on previous years but I think I attracted some new students to classes as well as gained a couple of new Young Embroiderers. Unfortunately, despite loads of interest from real visitors and blog visitors the latest collaborative brooch didn't sell this weekend... so if you are interested in a pink Hellebore brooch just let either me or Emma know. (£30 plus pp)

And now a little query... in the few quiet moments over the weekend I was musing over some new ideas and I thought about the embroidered buttons I made for my fashion module. "Wouldn't they be fun as little cheap and cheerful brooches to brighten up a T shirt" me thinks...

" There are bound to be plenty of suppliers on the interweb..."

What I had in mind was basically a self cover button... the sort where the back pops into place... but instead of a button shank it would have a brooch pin on the back. I thought they would be easy to find... but no! Unless I'm typing the wrong thing into Google, but I did try almost every combination of words I could think of (including some I probably shouldn't... but it's so easy to get side tracked)

The closest I found was a flat backed button where you can glue a brooch pin on the back but then I couldn't find a UK supplier that could provide the right size (I want 38mm). I found an Australian supplier but the postage was more than the buttons.

But surely someone manufactures these with the brooch pins already in place... do you know of any suppliers... can you help me? Do I sound desperate? Well you know what it's like when you get an idea... I just want to make some!!!