PACKING OUR POTS SO THEY REACH YOU SAFELY
We've discovered there's a fine art to packaging ceramics. Before we started QOG, one of our main concerns was how to post pots and vases out to our customers without breaking them. Losing pots in transit, not only disappoints our customers but it also makes us sad - we really do love the pieces we stock and, as vintage items, they're not often easily replaceable.
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So we did a lot of research and we practiced our packing skills and not wanting to brag, we've gotten pretty good at it. For those of you concerned that ordering a vintage pot in the post might lead you to opening a box full of broken pottery, we thought we'd explain a bit more about how we do it.
Each pot or vase is different so firstly we tailor the packaging to the individual item - this takes time and effort (no conveyer belts of bubble wrap and boxes at QOG HQ!). Because we love planet earth, we try to re-use packaging materials wherever possible but we always make sure we use plenty of soft stuff (bubble wrap, shredded cardboard, biodegradable foam pellets) to cushion each item.
We also make sure each box is just the right size for whatever it is we're sending (sometimes this means cutting down an existing cardboard box or even creating a new one from scratch) - not too big so that things rattle around, and not too small so that there's no room for cushioning.
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The next key thing is to stop the item moving about in transit. This is particularly important if we're packing more than one item in a single box. Again it depends on the sizes and shapes of the things we are packing (we have been known to curse a particularly unusually shaped object) but we often create our own cardboard buffers to go between pots or around them to help wedge them in place.
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Once everything is snug and secure, we make sure it's all taped up and well-labelled (you can't miss our parcels, they're covered in 'fragile tape') to ensure whoever delivers it, knows to be careful!
Whilst we obviously can't give 100% guarantee that our pots and vases will NEVER be damaged in transit, you can rest assured that we try really hard to prevent it happening. And we obviously give full refunds whenever it does happen. So please don't let fear of breakage put you off ordering one of our beautiful pots!
See the care we take to pack one of our items in this short video:
