A transparent overview of my products and process in response to the new General Product Safety Regulations

Who, how and why

In the interest of transparency, and with the advent of the new European Union GPSR (General Product Safety Regulations) I thought I would share some background information into how my products are made and who makes them. 

Well, it’s basically just me and a friend! I’m a potter in my spare time, working full-time as a graphic designer and illustrator in educational publishing. I love pottery, but as I have limited time in which I can pursue it I’m always looking for ways to speed up certain elements of the process (mainly the bits I don’t enjoy so much!). A professional web and systems developer friend of mine – Henry of Cat’s Paw Studios – bought a 3D printer and told me that if I wanted to design anything he could print it for me, and well, it kind of spiralled from there!

The process

  1. I usually think of an idea when I’m playing with clay in my shed, I then sketch out some designs.
  2. I model the designs using Autodesk Fusion 360 – I have the start-up license.
    Sometimes I’ll run through designs and concepts with Henry to iron out potential stumbling blocks early on.
  3. Once a design’s ready for printing I’ll export the models in print-friendly formats and send them through to Henry, who’ll select the appropriate slicer settings for each item, advising on potential model changes to allow for better printing results.
  4. I test these prototypes by using them in my pottery
    • More often than not, we’ll run through a few iterations of each item, testing each one until I’m happy, not everything I design passes the test! I only sell the best and most useful tools and the ones that I will continue to use myself.
  5. Once I’m happy with how they’re working, Henry and I print them to order –  we now run 4 printers between us.
  6. I then pack your orders using either recycled boxes and filler or with packaging that’s as eco-friendly as I can get. UK orders are shipped using Royal Mail and international orders are shipped with tracking using Evri.

Outsourced products

Occasionally we use a 3rd party company to help us manage the order load of the Mini Tabletop Clay Extruder as each one of these takes about 6 hours to print. The company I use is a reputable UK-based 3D printer that uses the same exact filament and same brand of machines as we do. We love this, since it means we can offer consistency between the units we print, and those we outsource. 

The product testing process

When you buy something from me, you are getting a crafted item that has been carefully tested by me – my items are not mass-produced, nor have they been through any regulatory testing. 

I test the items within my own working environment and with my clay (I tend to use ES5 or ES10 which is a smooth white stoneware with quite a plastic body for throwing, or a terracotta earthenware). As my reach of potters has now grown thanks to Etsy and Instagram, I have started to ask other potters to test my items before I launch them – this is currently underway with my new ‘Potter’s 3rd Arm tool’ which hopefully following feedback from my testers will be launching in January.

Customer feedback

As more and more people are using my items, I’m pleased to hear they are holding up well in other environments and with other clay bodies and people are finding them very useful. 

For example: out of the 196 extruders that have been shipped to various parts of the world so far, I’ve only had 3 people say it hasn’t worked for them, which is a 98.5% success rate and something that truly fills my heart with joy – it’s so lovely to know that my little tools are helping other potters in the same way they are helping me in my pottery practise.

What about my Ceramics?

Although I haven’t really started selling my pottery outside of my friends and locality, I am hoping to start doing so soon. 

I always use a dinnerware-safe commercial clear glaze, fired to the recommended temperature (using cones to accurately measure kiln temp) on items that will come into contact with food or drink. 

I also use some of my own custom-mixed glazes, but I only ever use these on surfaces that don’t hold food or drink. 

So why can’t I comply with the new GPSR?

Long story short, since it’s effectively only the two of us producing these tools in our free time, we simply don’t have the capacity or financial strength to become GPSR compliant. 

I can’t put individual serial numbers on each item and assign these to each order for traceability; Etsy has no tools that allow for this to be done and I can’t employ an EU-based representative who will certify each and every tool I sell to NI or within the EU.

I hope that future legislative changes will introduce less prohibitive measures for super-small creatives like myself, but it is with huge sorrow that I will no longer be able to sell to Northern Ireland* or to countries within the EU.

*At present Etsy groups NI in with the “UK shipping” group so there is no way for me to disable sales to NI. If I receive and order from NI, I will have to cancel and refund it – sorry! 

Thank you for your support.

Rhiannon