CPSIA + Handmade
Many of you probably have heard about this, but in case you haven’t, there’s a debate going on about the impact of the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act on small businesses. It is scheduled to go into effect February 9.
The Act was intended to address toy quality concerns after the recall of toys from China that contained toxic substances. It’s important to note that the new requirements introduced by the Act are designed to target the quality control of large-scale manufacturing concerns. That’s great, but what isn’t is that the new rules and testing standards also affect small producers of toys and clothing. Sellers who produce handmade or small production items for children are finding themselves in a quandary: they, too, have to prove their items are free of toxins X, Y and Z, a process often costing thousands of dollars that they can’t afford for products that were never in danger of being toxic.
It’s an interesting dilemma – no one wants children to be poisoned, but we should still be able to somehow have a market doesn’t stifle small producers through inappropriately targeted legislation. For more, you can visit the Handmade Toy Alliance, or visit Cool Mom Pick which is doing the Save Handmade button campaign (the button I posted here) and has actions to take and resources, or read this Open Letter from Etsy, or this article from the Craft Zine,
Ridiculously Cute: Chewbacca Mouse
Since it’s Friday, and I found something that’s quite beyond ridiculously cute, I had to share it. Presenting Chewbacca Mouse from The House of Mouse on Etsy (via the Park Bench, my favorite nerdy women blog).
I always did love Chewbacca.
Small is not Easy (but 3 of 5 are done)
Months ago, while I was in the midst of crocheting and stitching large afghans, I opined that I ought to do some small projects, like animals or something. The idea was to do things I could complete quickly, thinking it might somehow be easier. So I did. Some small animals might be easy, and in fact I thought the elephant I did was fun and quick. The third of my animals has proven more challenging.
Meet the (as-yet-unnamed) Pirate Panda, which is a gift for my brother Jeremy. He has movable shoulder joints (made with buttons). He comes with accessories – the skull-and-crossbones hat, the eye patch. I think he’s pretty cute.
Jeremy gets a panda because has a particular fondness for pandas. He and I both support Pandas International. This organization that raises money to support the panda preserve in Wolong, China. The Wolong preserve is the primary organization for panda research and preservation in the world, and has had a lot of success. Sadly, it was hit recently by the massive earthquake in China and sustained a lot of damage.
On another note, yes, I know I screwed up my June postings. I thought I’d already posted Friday and then on Saturday morning I realized I hadn’t made a post after all. I can’t believe I messed up and forgot like that. Ah well, I guess none of us are perfect, and this was probably not the best month for the attempt in the end, though I couldn’t have known that to begin with. After realizing I missed Friday, I decided to take Saturday off too. Why not?
I very nearly took today off as well. I went hiking today and got heat exhaustion, thanks to our lovely 100+ degree weather. Without the surprise illness and subsequent nap, I might have made a nice post about the peach syrup I made today. Do you know, it’s pretty easy to make syrup out of fruit?
