Packing and Shipping Headaches

Very Large Freestanding Double Wind Chime
by Coast Chimes

I used to make quite a few of these extra-large wind chime with beach stone bases: they are really beautiful! But shipping them is not a lot of fun! The beach stone base on the one pictures weighs over 33 pounds. The copper support is over 4 feet tall. The 2 glass strands are somewhat fragile. Packing this to ship is, in one word, nightmarish.

I have taken apart a shipped a fair number of these, and have thus learned some tricks to simplify the process. Even so, ugh! Yesterday when I packed it, I still made some novice mistakes. For example, I spent a long time cutting out 2 pieces of thick cardboard to seal the copper support, and then wrapped that completely in heavy paper. So far, so good, but I forgot I should have measured it before neatly wrapping it in shipping paper. When I measured it, I found it to be oversized, meaning the postage, just on this one part, would have been nearly $300! So I had to get my sharp knife and carve up my neat package, and use a lot more tape and time. In the end, I succeeded, getting it down to a size where it could ship as a normal parcel ($55), but tons of extra work, and a package that did not look quite as neat as I would have like.

Second mistake was wrapping the glass, chimes and copper support, before weighing the beach stone base! It could easily have been overweight, making the whole process a waste. How lucky that the stone came in below the maximum, and thus shippable (for almost $100). 

To top off the whole hassle, the buyer of this wind chime discovered it through Etsy's new offsite ads, so they charged me over $80 extra. I am happy the ads work, but wow, that's a pretty hefty fee! (That's on top of the usual seller / listing fees).

Oh well, it's shipped off now, I hope that it arrives in great condition, I hope the customer loves it. Probably in a few weeks I will get the itch to make some more of this style. Pain is quickly forgotten?

Must be Christmas

Click on the image to see it larger

A Very busy day of packing -- it must be almost Christmas!

The orders flowed in this weekend and Monday morning: Christmas shoppers. It's a big job packing my creations, because there is a lot of glass, and there are sometimes things like large beach stones that have to go in the same box. Although after ten years of packing I know a trick or two, it is very time consuming.

The first impression my customer gets (or the person to whom they are having me ship the gift) is from the look of my boxes. So I make a real effort to have sharp, clean looking boxes with neat labels etc.

The second impression is probably not that great as they remove the shipping paper, since I use recycled orange juice boxes, and then inside are recycled newspapers for padding. The newspapers are clean though, and I make sure to get the sort that do not have ink rubbing off.

Then they find all the actual items neatly wrapped in sill foam. The sill foam I buy new, and it is expensive. But it does an excellent job-- nothing has broken in over seven years (knock on wood).

The last impression hopefully knocks their socks off, as they remove the sill foam and see the actual item.

In the last twenty four hours I have received three emails similar to this one that I quote here:

"Tim!

You are such a lovely man! I got the suncatcher. It's a thousand times more beautiful than I expected. It's really nice to have the print up of where everything comes from and your inspiration for it too. It's an extraordinarily meaningful piece of art and I can't wait to give it to my mom and stepfather (especially because I hold the sea and everything that comes from it so close to my heart, since I grew up near the beach). And thank you so much for the copper earrings!!! I can't wait to buy from you again."

It has been so unusually freezing cold here, but emails like that warm me all day long. I love it!

Must be Spring

Sure signs of Spring: warmer weather, bees, flowers, and the large increase in the number of wind chimes shipping.

Packing glass is never easy. But with an injured thumb, even tricker. I had to learn a new way to hold scissors! But the job got done, and the packages look presentable.

I know how sad it would be to open a box of broken glass, so I take great care. I've learned over the years, and haven't had anything break now in over four years. Part of that is investing in great packing materials. I use a lot of sill foam, which at over $8.00 a roll adds to my expenses, but it is perfect for my glass.

I also know that the first impression on my customers will be the box I ship in. So I go to extra trouble to have the outside look neat and clean. I'm not sure, but guess maybe that helps things slide smoothly across the border, too.

My $255 cobalt blue beach glass inspired wind chime with cold forged connectors and hook is still way too low ($41!) on eBay. Why not add something amazing to your yard this Spring? See this wind chime by clicking here.