Selling your work · Packing and shipping
The step that turns a first online sale into a refund and a bad review.
Double boxing, where the padding goes, and what handles and rims need. Two boxes with two inches between them is the only method that works, and the three rules around it are that handles get filled, rims get wrapped first, and nothing rattles when you shake the box hard.
Four steps with a tick list at each: the wrap, the inner box, the outer box, and the label and the price. Six things that go wrong, each of them a refund, and six videos from potters who ship hundreds of pots a year.
This is the short version: the wrap, the inner box, the outer box, the label, each with a tick list. The plate and bowl detail, the pricing notes and the questions are in the comprehensive version.
Read it, then watch it
Why this is written down and filmed, both.
Packing is one method and three rules. The method is two boxes with two inches between them, and the rules are that handles get filled, rims get wrapped first, and nothing rattles. That is a list, and a list belongs on a page next to the tape. What a page cannot show is a mug becoming a solid lump in bubble wrap, or the way a potter who ships hundreds of pots a year tapes a box, and that is the videos, from people who have refunded enough breakages to have stopped having them.
Use both, in this order
Read the method and the three rules. Watch one mug packed. Pack the first one with the tick list open, shake it hard, and send it to yourself first.
The whole idea
Two boxes, two inches between them, handles filled, rims wrapped first, nothing rattles.
Stuff the handle, band the rim, wrap the pot into one solid lump. A small inner box with padding on every side. An outer box two inches bigger in every direction, filled with crumpled paper until nothing moves when you shake it hard. A printed label with a return address, and the packed box weighed before the price is set. The studio does not ship.
The five-minute version
The whole method in six moves.
If you have posted anything fragile before and you just want the shape of it, this is the shape of it. Everything below is these six moves, slowed down and with the places they fail marked.
Before the first parcel
What you need on the packing table.
Six things, and the boxes in three sizes are the decision that prevents most breakages before the padding is even out.
Boxes in three sizes, bubble wrap or paper, crumpled kraft paper, tape, a scale and a tape measure, and a printed label.
Step one
Fill the handle, wrap the rim, then make the pot one solid lump.
Handles and rims are what break. A handle is a lever; a rim is the thinnest edge on the pot. So the handle gets a wad of paper stuffed inside its loop until it cannot flex, and the rim gets a band of bubble wrap before anything touches the body.
Then the body: bubble wrap, or several layers of paper, round the whole pot, handle included, taped, until it is one solid shape with no edges sticking out. A wrapped mug should look like a lump, not a mug. Florian Gadsby’s video below is twenty-three minutes of exactly this, and the tape is half of it.
Plates and bowls are rims all the way round. A band of padding round every rim first, then the wrap, then a sheet of foam or card between neighbours. Plates travel on edge, standing like files, never flat in a stack, because a stack puts the weight of every plate on the bottom one’s rim. Bowls nest only with a full wrap between each, and a bowl that matters gets its own inner box.
Step two
A small inner box the pot nearly fills, padded on every side.
The inner box is the pot’s own room. A box the wrapped pot nearly fills, paper on the bottom, down every side and over the top, lid taped. Shake it. If anything moves, fill the gap. A pot that can move is a pot that will hit something.
Too big a box is the common mistake. A mug in a bowl’s box has four inches of nothing on one side, the paper settles in transit, and the mug slides into the wall. Three inner box sizes, one for mugs, one for bowls, one for plates, bought in tens, is the cheapest decision in shipping and the one that stops most rattles before they start. Matthew Kelly’s video is packing as a system, and the boxes are the system.
Two mugs in one inner box is fine if each is a solid lump and there is paper between them so they cannot touch; a set of plates on edge with sheets between is fine in one inner box. Bowls nested inside each other are fine only with a full wrap between each. Anything you would be sorry to lose gets its own room.
Step three
An outer box two inches bigger in every direction. The inner box floats.
The outer box takes the drop, and every parcel is dropped. An outer box two inches bigger than the inner in every direction: two inches of crumpled paper under, around and over the inner box, every seam taped. The inner box floats and never feels the shock the outer box takes.
Crumpled kraft paper is the right filler for the gap: it springs back, it does not settle the way peanuts do, and it is cheap. Bubble wrap is the shock absorber round the pot; paper is the space between. Both, in their places. Then shake the whole thing hard, listen, and if anything shifts, open it and fill it. A box you can shake is a box that is not packed.
This is the whole method, and it is the only one that works. A single box with a lot of padding is a pot in a box, and a drop puts the shock straight through the padding into the pot. BlueRainGallery’s three minutes below is how a gallery does it, which is this page with a bigger budget and the same two inches.
Why two inches
A parcel dropped from waist height stops in the distance the padding can crush, and two inches of crumpled paper crushes over about an inch before it bottoms out. Less than that and the inner box hits the outer box wall on a hard drop; more is weight and postage for nothing. Two inches on every side is the number carriers quote, galleries use, and the potters in the videos below have arrived at separately, which is the best kind of number.
Step four
Weigh it, measure it, price it, print the label, and send the first one to yourself.
The packed box is what the carrier charges for. Weigh and measure it packed and put those numbers into the carrier’s calculator before the pot is listed; carriers charge by size as well as weight. Price the shipping into the pot or as a real line; a guessed flat rate is how shipping costs more than the pot.
Then a printed label, not a hand-written one, with a return address so it can come home, and the tracking number sent to the buyer the day it ships. Fragile on the outside is a courtesy, not a strategy; the double box is the strategy. Old Forge Creations’ video below is the label side of the job for anyone shipping far.
And send the first one to yourself, or to a friend across the country, before you send one to a stranger. Open it. If the mug is fine, the method is fine. If it is not, the method is fixed before it costs a review. When one does break anyway, and one will, refund fast, apologise once, and ship the replacement double boxed; the review is decided by the recovery, not the breakage.
Watch it done
Now watch six people pack a pot.
Watch this one, then go buy boxes in three sizes.
None of these potters work here or know we exist. Between them they cover the double box done properly, packing as a system, paper only, cups, how a gallery does it, and mugs going far. Nothing but the still frame loads until you press play.
Twenty-three minutes from a potter who ships hundreds of pots a year: the wrap, the two boxes, and the two inches. The other five videos are in the comprehensive version.
When it goes wrong
Six ways it goes wrong, and what to do about each.
The three breakages that happen on the first parcel.
Pick the one that looks like the photo the buyer sent. The first three are the box, the handle and the rim. The last three are the rattle, the price and the label.
It broke in a single box
One box with padding is a pot in a box. A drop puts the shock straight through the padding into the pot, and every parcel gets dropped.
Two boxes. The pot wrapped and padded in an inner box, the inner box floating in two inches of padding inside an outer box. The outer box takes the drop; the inner box never feels it.
Refund fast, apologise once, ship the replacement double boxed. The review is decided by the recovery.
The handle snapped off in transit
A handle is a lever, and anything that presses on it in a box levers it off the mug. Bubble wrap round the whole mug presses the handle against the body every time the box moves.
Fill the handle: a wad of paper inside the loop so nothing can flex it, then wrap the mug so the handle is a solid lump, then pad around the lump.
Same refund, same recovery, and every mug from now on has a stuffed handle.
The rim chipped
A rim is the thinnest edge on the pot and it took the shock. A pot that touched the side of the inner box, or a rim that pointed at the box wall with nothing between.
Rim wrapped separately with a band of padding before the body is wrapped. Nothing hard touches the rim. The pot floats; it does not sit.
A chipped rim is a second-quality pot. Refund or replace; do not argue with a photograph.
You could hear it move when you shook the box
A gap. Padding that settled, or a box too big for the pot, or a pot wrapped but not held. A pot that can move is a pot that will hit something.
Fill every gap until the box does not rattle when shaken hard. Crumpled paper is the gap filler; bubble wrap is the shock absorber. Both.
Open it and fill it. A box you can shake is a box that is not packed.
Shipping cost more than you charged for it
A double box weighs more and measures more than a single one, and carriers charge by size as well as weight. A pot priced without the box is a pot sold at a loss.
Weigh and measure the packed box before listing, price the shipping into the pot or as a real line, and keep three box sizes so a mug does not ship in a bowl’s box.
Eat it once and reprice. A shipping calculator with the packed dimensions is the fix.
It went to the wrong address or came back
A hand-written label, a smudged one, or one the carrier could not scan. Or the return address was missing and it could not come home.
A printed label, a return address, the tracking number sent to the buyer, and the word fragile as a courtesy rather than a strategy; the double box is the strategy.
Track it, contact the carrier, contact the buyer. Print the next one.
How it works here
At The Clay Hole, the pickup shelf is the last thing we touch.
This page is written for potters everywhere. A few things are specific to our building, so you know before you start.
Three things to know here
The studio does not ship and does not sell members’ work. Fired work is collected from the pickup shelves within two weeks, and the packing happens after that, at home. Grind the foot before it goes in the box. Everything you make here is yours to sell and yours to ship.
We do not ship
The pickup shelf is where the studio’s part ends. The box, the label, the carrier and the refund are the maker’s, and so is the sale. Bring boxes from home; pack at home.
Getting it home first
Fired pots off the pickup shelf go home in a padded box or a bag with something between them, because a fired pot chipped in a car is as chipped as one broken in the post. Collect within two weeks; the shelves are shared.
Before the box
Every fired foot gets a fingertip and, if it catches, the diamond pad, per the sanding lesson. Then the photograph, per the photographing lesson, so the pot in the box matches the pot in the listing.
The price
Boxes, paper, tape and postage are a line on the month in the costs lesson, divided by the pots shipped. A mug that ships costs more to sell than a mug that is handed over at a market, and the price should know that.
Questions people actually ask
The ones that come up every week.
What does double boxing mean?
The pot is wrapped and padded inside a small box that fits it closely. That inner box is placed inside a larger box with at least two inches of padding on every side, so it floats. The outer box takes the drop and the inner box never feels it. It is the one method that works, and it is the reason every potter who ships uses it.
What padding?
Bubble wrap for the shock absorber round the pot, crumpled kraft paper for filling gaps and for the two inches between the boxes. Packing peanuts settle and leave gaps. Foam sheets and corner protectors for plates. If you would rather not ship plastic, Kara Leigh Ford’s video below is the paper-only method, and it works.
How do I pack a mug?
Stuff the handle with a wad of paper so nothing can flex it. Wrap the rim with a band of bubble wrap. Wrap the whole mug, handle included, into one solid lump. Inner box with padding on all sides, no rattle. Outer box, two inches all round. The handle and the rim are the two things that break, and each gets its own layer before the body does.
How do I pack a plate or a bowl?
Plates on edge, never flat, each in its own wrap with a foam sheet or card between neighbours, standing in the inner box like files. Bowls nested only with a full wrap between each, or one per inner box. Rims are the whole problem for both; a band of padding round each rim first.
What box sizes?
Three. A mug size, a bowl size, a plate size, and outer boxes two inches bigger in every direction than each. Buying boxes in tens is cheaper than any other packing decision. Do not ship a mug in a bowl’s box; the extra space is the extra rattle.
How do I price the shipping?
Weigh and measure the packed box, not the pot, and put those numbers into the carrier’s calculator before you list. Carriers charge by size as well as weight, and a double-boxed mug is bigger than people expect. Either price the shipping into the pot or show it as a real line; a guessed flat rate is how shipping costs more than the pot.
Does The Clay Hole ship?
No. The studio does not ship members’ work and does not sell it; your pot, your box, your label. Bring boxes from home, pack at home, and take a packed box to the carrier. The pickup shelf is where the pot is collected, and the packing happens after that, somewhere with a table and a roll of tape.
Related lessons
Six lessons that sit next to this one.
Three to read next.
Shipping is the last step of a sale and the first thing a buyer judges. These are the pages before it.
That is the whole method
Fill the handle. Band the rim. One lump. Inner box. Outer box, two inches. Shake it. Print the label.
Your first parcel will be one box with a lot of bubble wrap and hope, and it will probably arrive, and the second one will not. That is normal, and the third will be double boxed for the rest of your life. Potters who ship hundreds of pots a year have breakages you can count on one hand, and every one of them uses two boxes.
If you want the plate and bowl detail, the box-size notes, the pricing arithmetic and the answers to the questions everybody asks, switch to the comprehensive version at the top. Otherwise, go buy boxes in three sizes.
Written for potters everywhere. Where our studio does things differently, the page says so.
Which version would you like to print?
Both print clean, with the videos turned into labelled boxes you can search for later.