I’ve known for a while that one of the key legal challenges to the growth of the DIY segment as a source of innovation is liability law. So-called consumer protection laws have long been used to punish manufacturers who produce defective or harmful products, even if the use of the product extends beyond what the […]
Image by Hasenpfeffer Incorporated, via Handmade Detroit This just in from BuyHandmade.org: The last day of voting for the Ideas for Change in America competition is today! On Friday we will present the top 10 ideas to the Obama administration at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. We’ll then connect the winning ideas to […]
One handmaker of organic parent/baby accessories, Turtle Park Tots, calculates the true cost the required CPSIA testing on products, going into effect in February: I’ve telling everyone how expensive the third-party component testing required by the CPSIA is but I don’t think I’ve sat down and actually ran the numbers. Yikes! The costs are truly […]
Shoppers at a Michaels store in Pleasant Hill, Calif. – photo by Peter DaSilva The New York Times has an interesting article about the effect the recession has been having on craft sales, both on the craft supply front and the readymade craft product end. The gist? Sales are up! Read more here.
We’ve been following the CPSIA development, and it’s apparent the groundswell of protest is in full swing. Petitions are being signed by the thousands, letters are being sent to Congress, and small business owners are mobilizing to take action against what they believe are unreasonable demands being placed on them by a law that will […]
Etsy’s Handmade Portraits series goes in depth with successful sellers to tell the story of their creative rise to fame. In this one, learn how Allison Sattinger started her own line of beautiful leather crafts, Sunny Rising Leather.
Cory Doctorow at BB writes: Crafters are up in arms over a seemingly disastrous unintended consequence of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which will require lab certification that lead and phthalates are not present in toys or clothes — sounds good, but crafters warn that this means that “a toymaker… who makes wooden […]
