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?

Specialized Turbo Vado to the Post Office

Specialized Turbo Vado e-bike
Coast Chimes Orders Headed to the Post Office

Most often in the past, I would put an order inside my large backpack, and strap the others onto the outside, sometimes during the busy seasons also having to add a large garbage bag or two, and hike the kilometres to our local post office. It was easy if the car happened to be home to do the simple thing and drive.

These pretty spring days, it is a pleasure to use my new e-bike. We have many really steep hills here, and I never felt like using a regular bike much-- just too hard on my knees. The e-bike lets me choose just how much assistance I want. Loaded down, steep hill, I can get a lot of help, making even the steepest hill no problem at all. Pleasure riding, or on the flat areas, I can basically turn off the assistance and get some work out.

The only issue is all the narrow, twisting roads we have here, or narrow roads with high speed limits. If there happens to be a bike lane, it tends to be a fairly narrow strip, no barrier, full of sticks, stones, or worse, and also frequent uneven pavement. It seems biking is becoming ever more popular, and I hope everyone puts pressure on the government to improve this situation. I myself plan to advocate for improvements.

I feel great getting some exercise, not contributing to the traffic and air pollution with an ICE. Customers or Coast Chimes may appreciate that I constantly do all I can to reduce, reuse, recycle. Also, I design and build all my creations to last, unlike cheaper stuff often designed for a season or two and to be thrown away.

Canadian Dollar Lower Shipping Cost

A Few of My Wind Chimes and Suncatchers
Free Shipping to the USA & Canada
visit Coast Chimes

The Canadian Dollar has tanked. That's great news for my customers. Here is why.

A couple of years ago when I sold a $100 suncatcher chime I would receive $85, because the Canadian dollar was stronger than the US dollar. That was painful. Today when I sell a $100 suncatcher chime I receive a $135. Far less painful.

So  I have decided to provide free shipping on orders to the USA and Canada from my website. I haven't raised the prices on any of my works. My customers save, and I still make a little more. Win win.

The downside of the low Canadian dollar is that many things are starting to cost more here. A lot more. Last trip to the grocery store I saw rather small sad looking cauliflower for $7.95.

Shipping Overseas

Natural Pacific Beach Stone Wind Chime
Available at Coast Chimes for $75.00

I sell my work almost exclusively on the Internet— these days through Etsy and my own website, Coast Chimes. I've been doing this for about twenty years, and it works pretty well. The funny thing is, you would think that I would have it all figured out by now, that it would be natural and easy, like breathing, no thinking needed. Nope. I run into new situations and problems all the time.

An example from just yesterday. The beach stone wind chime, pictured above, sold. That's great. But then I saw it sold to someone in Switzerland. That's nice-- my wife is Swiss. But I knew right away that this would complicate things, as I had put $25 down for shipping. That is the standard price for some small, light weight package to Europe, airmail. But, sadly, beach stones are not light!

I packaged it up all nicely, cutting away every ounce of extra cardboard from the box. When I weighed it, it came in at well over one kilogram, which meant I would have had to pay nearly $100 in postage.

I unwrapped the whole thing, and tried using a padded envelop. That did it; well under a kilogram. The only problem is all the time I spent wrapping and unwrapping and re-wrapping, and, more importantly, the customer will have a far less pleasant experience when receiving the chime, as I had to unhook the chimes, and also, honestly, an envelop just is not the same as opening a box. But hopefully they will forget about the ugly envelop and unhooked chimes when they hook it back together and see just how neat and beautiful it is.

Shipping Record Exploded

21 kaleidoscope wind chimes, 1 huge double freestanding wind chime, and 6 beach stone chimes. The largest one day shipment in the history of Coast Chimes.

It's been a fabulous, busy month. In fact, yesterday I shipped more works than ever before in one day. These were not all ordered on the same day, and most I have been working on for the past month or longer. It just happened that they were all ready to ship at the same time. Still, it is sweet to see the popularity of my work appearing to grow nicely. People still appreciate handcrafted, high quality, works with soul, as opposed to cheap generic stuff.

It's been so busy, I am a little concerned about making ample stock for the fast approaching Christmas rush. So I have temporally closed the large wind chime section of the wholesale page of my website. Suncatcher and suncatcher chime packages are still available.

Now, time to go and make some wonderful new things!

Large Freestanding Double Wind Chime

Click on the picture to see it larger

Driftwood with Double Chimes

Freestanding Wind Chime

My large works do not fly out the door, as they are pretty expensive. The one pictured above features a massive Pacific driftwood base, copper intertwined flowing supports, beautiful glass and two sets of copper chimes. It sold yesterday.

I used to be really happy when one of my large works sold. I still am, but that initial thrill is now overshadowed with dread: these are a chore to pack for shipping!

It used to be even more work to ship something like this. I used to actually cut plywood and build a special box for the copper support. Now I just use big sheets of cardboard, lots of tape, and shipping paper. Those poor collectors who received their order in a big plywood box probably did not appreciate having to dispose of the packing materials.

I have a page dedicated to large works and there are still two available on my website. They are really nice on a sundeck, or out in the garden. They can also be used indoors, in a home or an office, as kinetic art.

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.