Tips on packaging and shipping pottery...
How I safely ship pottery worldwide…
….I get a lot of questions from my potter kin and customers alike about how I package and ship ceramics all around the world safely. It is scary to trust your beloved pots into the hands of postal services and couriers so I thought it might be helpful to put a few of my tips into a blog post…
Selling mostly online, my packaging is the first physical interaction most of my customers will have with me so first impressions count. I want my pottery to arrive in perfect condition and for the unboxing experience to be *nearly* as joyful as the pot itself. I have spent years perfecting my packaging techniques, during shop updates I package hundreds of items and I can count the number of breakages I have ever had on one hand (most of them were in my first six months of selling my work).
Box it twice, make it once!
My packing routine does vary depending on what I am sending but here’s roughly what I do:
I check each pot carefully before wrapping it neatly in tissue paper, I seal it with a branded sticker (which I print out myself on sticky labels using an inkjet printer). I wrap the pot with minimum (normally two layers) of honey combed paper, first one direction then the other. I’ll use jute twine to secure the paper. In some instances I’ll still use recycled bubble wrap - gifted to me by neighbours or collected from parcels. I always include a business and post card in the parcel with a personal thank you note to the recipient. I don’t spend hundreds of pounds on specially branded packaging boxes - I had a branded stamp made for me by The English Stamp Company which I have used for nearly 4 years, I stamp all my boxes using this one stamp. I pop the pot in it’s first box and fill any gaps with paper or eco-corn void fill peanuts. For mugs I use smash proof boxes, for plates I use extra-strength cake boxes :-)
This is my biggest tip. For the vast majority of my parcels I use two boxes. The pot will be snuggly tucked up inside the first box. There should be ‘air’ in-between your first box and the exterior box. This is the only way to ensure that if your package does get kicked around the exterior box will take the impact and the pot will remain safe. The internal box should be ‘levitating’ inside the exterior box - kept in place with void filling packaging. I always give the parcel a good shake - if the inner box rattles around that is a recipe for disaster- there should be no movement of the pot or the inner box. I always use a double-walled cardboard for overseas or large shipments; single wall boxes are just not strong enough.
Void Filler: I use Bio- peanuts, these are void fill packaging made from corn starch. They are totally bio-degradable and disintegrate if they come in contact with water. I also use brown recycled paper to fill around the internal box and sometimes I will use air pockets (always reused from parcels I have received).
I do buy my mug boxes and some smaller sized boxes as the correct sizes are hard to come by but I try to recycle as much packaging as I can.
Folks in my village know I have a fetish for boxes and save up their boxes and bubble wrap for me and leave it on my doorstep. I have found some of the best boxes have been from paint companies (for obvious reasons) it is worth going to DIY places such as Homebase and B&Q - a lot of their stores have box banks by the front door and you can help yourself to as many boxes as you like. I only use clean, very good quality boxes - double walled, non branded are best but will also use the odd amazon box now and then. Let your friends and neighbours know you will reuse their packaging - it has saved me £££ over the years.
I use paper craft tape instead of plastic tape so all of my packaging is 100% recyclable. I source any new boxes from companies which only use FSC Forrests which is considered the "gold standard" designation for wood harvested from forests that are responsibly managed, socially beneficial, environmentally conscious, and economically viable. Many box manufacturers now also use recycled pulp in their boxes.
Postal Services
For the UK I have had a good experience with Royal Mail (this is my personal experience and I know services can vary across the country) my local post office owner is really friendly and helpful. He actually tries really hard to help me keep my postage costs to a minimum. If I am a few grams over the 2kilo weight limit they’ll offer me a pair of scissors and some tape so I can reorganise my parcel so that it comes under the weight limit. It’s really worth getting a good pair of scales and good relationship with your local post office😉. I like the immediacy of taking my parcels to the post office, knowing that as soon as I have packaged them up they are out the door and will be on their way that day but I do appreciate the benefits of pre-booking a courier collection from companies such as Hermes or DPD.
For international parcels under 2 kilos I haven’t found any company that can beat Royal Mail on price or reliability but again that’s just my experience and I know that the local services in the destination country have a huge impact on delivery times and reliability. E.g. Italy and Canada have been the countries I have personally found can take the longest whereas USA and Australia have surprisingly quick delivery times - I have had parcels arrive in as little as 3 days!
For International parcels over 2 kilos Royal Mail prices shoot up and are not as affordable so I use a parcel broker such as Parcel2go, Parcel Hero or Parcel Monkey, they show you all the big couriers and the best prices or deals on that week, I often use UPS for USA. DPD & Hermes for Australia and Asia - all of them have been pretty good for me. Be careful about the additional insurance they try and flog you - because ceramics are considered a high risk items they are exempt from any kind of compensation if they do get damaged, no matter how much they try and convince you to take out the additional insurance they won’t pay out if the worst happens so my advice would be save your money and just make sure your packaging is top class. In all my years of posting items, a few parcels have been delayed but I have never actually lost a parcel. In the very few circumstances a pot has got damaged I have remade it for the customer very quickly and they have always been thrilled to receive it safely in the end - no one has ever asked for a refund (but of course that would be ok too!)
Ikea bags - are great for carrying boxes to the post office.
My thoughts on bubble wrap
I’ve stopped using bubble wrap 98% of the time for all parcels I send out to my website customers. I now mostly only use honey comb paper. But in some instances honey comb paper makes the parcels much heavier than if I used bubble wrap (which has an environmental impact too) It also isn’t quite a good at protecting pots with delicate edges. For my wholesale orders I still need to use bubble wrap as I am often sending a lot of work in one shipment and the paper alternative is just too heavy and not as protective (and when couriers don’t insure ceramics this is a problem.) There are eco bubble wraps on the market made from compostable plastics but they tend to be more expensive, they need a special atmosphere in which to breakdown (over 50 degrees Centigrade) which means they won’t degrade in your average compost heap. There is evidence that microscopic particles still stick around in the soil for centuries. I try to keep my use of bubble wrap to a minimum and only use it where essential. I know that most of my wholesale customers will reuse packaging where possible and often return it to me for me to reuse it again.
If you have any questions at all then do please get in touch. If you are a potter/ maker and nervous about shipping your work I hope this has been helpful and if any potter chums have your own tips you can share in the comments below I would love to hear them!
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