Handmade Dorset Button Brooches

Brought up in Dorset, on the South Coast of England, and now living on the Isle of Skye, off the North West Coast of Scotland, my creativity is inspired by the landscapes and history of these places.

Tania Ashton Jones of TJFrog is a Dorset Button maker, designer, tutor, hand knitter and podcaster. Brought up in Dorset, on the South Coast of England and now living on the Isle of Skye, Tania aims to contribute to keeping alive the traditional skill of the handmade Dorset Button, a cottage industry at its peak between 1620 - 1850.

Now classed as a heritage craft Tania incorporates traditional Dorset Buttony techniques to make beautiful contemporary, functional and decorative buttons, brooches, knitting and crochet notions and accessories for today’s lifestyle.

Tania loves sourcing a variety of different yarns with an emphasis on using hand dyed yarns from independent businesses and British breed wool and creating a design to best showcase the nature of the yarn.

And the TJFrog name? - TJ refers to Tania Jane, her first and middle name and Frog to her lifelong love of frogs! A name she assigned herself as a child, as you do! On taking up knitting again in 2008 and discovering knitters “frog” their work when ripping it back, TJFrog seemed an obvious choice for her creative business!

The rich geological features of Dorset & Skye inspired TJFrog’s wool label, Shorelines & Strata, celebrating their linkage through geology and each areas distinctive breeds of sheep that have long shaped the land.