Apparently, the new PPWR rules (because they are still partly under the jurisdiction of each of the EU countries) are not without a de minimis threshold everywhere. (Or even clearly phrased and easily accessible.)

Also apparently,  the Netherlandish institution responsible for their packaging has stated that there is a de minimis threshold of 50 tons of packaging material per year, under which registration is not necessary. They are also interpreting it so that if you don't have to register, you don't have to have an appointed representative.

Which means I am happy to announce that I am re-instating shipping to the Netherlands. (I am also rather miffed about this still. Even if the individual interpretation that I can ship makes me happy, it means that there's even less clarity on the situation. It might be possible that something similar applies to other countries as well, but the research needed to find out about this for each other of the 26 remaining countries is way above what is sensible for me to invest in this, time-wise. It would be really helpful to have sensible rules that are the same for each country, with a central registration, and even more helpful to have an official EU aid that gives out an information newsletter for the businesses in a timely manner, with a clearly worded explanation of what will come up next, who is targeted, and where you can get more information if you need to act.)

So. Shipping to the Netherlands possible again from today.

There also seems to be some movement regarding all this mess. Apparently there was a speech at a conference regarding the EU with clear words that there needs to be changes, or discussion, or whatnot, about these new rules. There's an article here at the EUPerspectives website. I won't be holding my breath, though - and I am convinced that it will be a sensible move to keep pointing out this issue, and keep writing EU representatives about it.

Well, mess is a rather tame word for this, to be honest, but... we'll leave it at that for now.

I have promised you more about the shipping issues that many small vendors currently face, so here you go.

First of all, because most German social media posts about these problems currently are full of comments bashing the EU. (Notice that I write comments - it's not the posts themselves.) Personally, I do stand very firmly behind the idea of the EU. We are stronger together, and many, many of the things the EU does are really wonderful. I am also old enough to still remember the hassle of border controls, and the constant maths in your head of trying to do currency exchange calculations while shopping for coffee or food or souvenirs, and the problems of ordering something from a small shop outside your own country, with different currency and all. Joining up under an umbrella that helps us to negotiate better with other large nations like China and the US, and making things within the EU simpler and more harmonised - that's a great idea. Unfortunately all great ideas struggle with small-mindedness, and may also struggle with egoism, and that is surely part of why some things, intended for the very best, go horribly pear-shaped and suddenly find themselves rather brown in colour and on a rapid trajectory towards the next fan.

I am also all, all for the reduction of waste and environmental impact. If you've been hanging out on this blog for a while, you will know that sustainability and reducing unneccessary waste are quite high up on my personal list. We have numbers for the EU (well, for the whole world, but anyways), and packaging waste (especially single-use plastics) are a huge portion of general waste, so it is important to act in this respect. Whcich means... in general, the EU idea of unifying waste and packaging material treatments across all countries, and sequentially introducing more rules for better sustainability - it's great, and very, very necessary.

So where did things go wrong? Previously, we had different rules for each of the EU countries, with different thresholds for import, different costs for package waste licensing, different minimum amounts for that. Quite a few countries had a de minimis threshold, so you'd not need to bother registering for a handful of packages each year. We are talking literal handfuls here; like many other small sole traders, I am not sending more than at super-duper-most five packages per year to any one single other EU country*.

All these countries had established their own systems, and they are vastly different from nation to nation. Obviously, all countries were somehow convinced that their system is the bees' knees, and did not want to change it or adopt anyone else's instead. So, consequently, there was no agreement on new, EU-wide regulations. The only thing that happened was that there are the same labels in all of the EU now, and each country now works on the same baseline: They still have their national waste licensing system, and you are still required to enter it if you ship to that country, but there are no more thresholds with the intention to offer the same terms everywhere and to everyone. That, unfortunately, means that you have to register via a licensed, notary-confirmed authorised representative in each single of the 26 countries if you intend to offer selling into that country, and this starts at the very first package. And with this harmonised, they have not even agreed on the same fee structure or waste amount tiers, which means that one country you might have to register and it's a minimum amount of 100 kg of paper you pay for, and in another one it might be 30 kg.

If I could be sure to have a shipping volume of around 250 packages per year into any single country, I could add around 3 Euro to the cost in every shipping tier, and it would work out approximately (if the licensing fees are not too high in that country, that is). With less shipping volume, it's not even worth doing the maths for that country. 

The EU has planned some exemptions for small vendors, but their definition of a "small company" is one with less than ten employees and less than two million Euro turnover per year. They have been told, time and again and not just within the last few days, that these rules are way, way too much bureaucracy and way too much expenses for small traders. However, nothing has happened. Which means that the really small vendors, the solo entrepreneurs and similar tiny ones (in German you'd say we are a fly's shit), we're getting grouped in with companies just below two million turnover per year. This, dear reader, cannot work well, as anyone knowing and doing a little bit of simple maths will be easily able to understand.

Unfortunately, and this is where I do get a bit grudgy now, the EU representatives were not even able to agree among them all on a really ridiculously low de minimis threshold.  There's always be going to be malcontent people where they are just above a minimum line, but really, if we're talking about amounts that an ambitious granny could post to her family each year - even if it's only ten parcels free to other countries each year, that would already help the really small ones.

Because, and here's the next bit of irony: Many of the small traders whose statements I've read do say that they are happy and support the general idea of waste control and waste management. They are also trying to comply with the rules as best they can** - so consequently they are stopping shipping. Some are already very frustrated about all the rules and regs that, for instance, make it harder to re-use packaging materials on top of all the other stuff that you have to keep up-to-date with. Quite a few of them are holding a grudge, but I have not seen any of them state we need to leave the EU. That is done in the comments by some readers, mostly of the right-leaning-maybe-already-brownish tinged fraction that really have no understanding of how shitty that would be overall, and have obviously also not paid attention to what Brexit has turned out to be. (Spoiler alert: It has turned out to not have been a good idea.)

So where am I going with this text, apart from getting it all off my chest? One, hopefully you can understand a little better now why so many shops have stopped EU shipping. We fly-shit traders really want to have nice, fair rules that we can adhere to, and can't use more insecurities because of grey zones. Two, if you are unhappy about the situation (which I very much hope you will be), you have some options: Write to your EU representative(s), or call them up if you like phone calls better. Write to the EU commissioner Jessika Roswall. Leave a statement in the official feedback page (it has opened August 6 and will be open until September 10). Sign the (new) petition about this mishap. Tell your friends. And then... please do something that makes you happy, to balance out all this shit.

I can tell you that I have spent much, much more of my time and energy on this whole kerfuffle than was good for me. I have hoped against hope that I'd get heard along with all the other tiny shops. I have read the texts of the regulations, in English and in German, trying to find the exemption for the small ones. I have cried with frustration of having so, so many things that it is really hard to conform to, and you know that you are in a grey zone here, and there, and there, and there, and at some point it adds up and you lose the energy to keep up when the next one comes up where there's just no way around. There's also the little issue that many of the people I work with, and am getting goods from - both for the shop stock and for my museum work - are in some other EU country, and most probably they, now, are also stopping shipment within the EU. Something like the Alpirsbach hose project? The fabric came from Sweden - so nope (or add another c 500 € to the cost of the fabric). My dyeing expert? Lives in France. Some of my spindle whorls? From Belgium. If I have a regional source, I'll go for that, but many things are so niche that I'm over the moon if I can find anyone at all willing to do these things, and chances that they're outside Germany are very, very high. 

I am not sure what is to blame for this all going so utterly and senselessly wrong, but I am sure that it's something profoundly human (but maybe not very good-human) that is part of all this.

Having to stop shipping to UK because of Brexit, and to the US because of taxes and tariffs was frustrating already. Having to stop on what I had considered, more or less, the home turf hits much harder, and differently. So for now, I will let this thing rest, and hope that it will resolve itself in some way. If it doesn't do it quickly and you need something shipped from me, or from any other small vendor in a different country, your best bet will probably be to find a friend who lives in that country, and do the ordering and shipping via them.

Good luck, to all of us.

* At this volume, shipping abroad is basically customer service, and if calculated properly, I guess the work time invested overall in keeping up to date with shipping cost changes and shipping rule changes, plus the extra filling out of import forms probably more than eats up the revenue gained with these shipments - but I enjoy having my stuff travel the world, and I know the pain of not being able to get something just because you're too far away, so I have never done the maths on that correctly, on purpose. 

** It is, in fact, no small feat to even just keep up with the developments so you know what you have to change, or check, or amend, or look out for. There is no official channel that will give the stuff to you in somewhat digestible form - so you can either spend a lot of time trawling the EU and national rules pages, or hope that you're lucky and will hear about it in time, or sign up to some "vendor help" newsletters that will give you most of the news at some point, but always in a way to make you feel like buying some programme or service from them is your only sensible way to deal with the new shit. If you're a 200 employees company, you'll have someone dealing with all the law stuff and compliance shenanigans. If you're just one person... every hour that this research and the consequent adaptations for compliance eat up is time that you can't spend on your core business. And believe me, it's not done with one hour per change usually.

While it's snowing hard outside (still - we've had 27 to 30 cm since yesterday evening, and it's still building up) I spent some cozy time fiddling with pins. Or, to be more precise, making new ones.

This time, I used a different method for grinding the tips into shape, and it was much nicer to work and got better results, so I'm very happy with the new process. They're already marked as back in stock, and waiting to go to new homes and new adventures.

Now the only thing I need to tweak is how to wind the spiral for the heads, as there's still a rather large chance that the start will slip out of its holding place, and then everything turns around the core instead of adding new bits. 

One of my favourite ways of getting new things into the shop is when someone approaches me with the need (or desire, I do not care) for some replicated tool.  

In this case, one of my lovely colleagues had done research about Roman-time rigid heddles, made from bone, and was especially interested in one specific piece, which was found (fragmented, unfortunately) in a man's grave. 

So I got asked the question on whether it would be possible to have reconstructions of this... and to both our delight, yes, it was!

It's small but very, very pretty - and with four slits and five holes, that would be enough to make a slim lace, some narrow band for whatever use, or maybe a starting border for a loom. And of course I could not resist to give one of them a little try with a bit of dark and light wool yarn.

The thing is freshly listed in my shop now - you can have a closer look at it here.

Finally! No, not only finally Friday (though that is welcome as well), but also I finally have... The Needle.

Years ago now. I was shown a needle found in Lorsch (which is an early medieval monastery). The idea, straight away, was to find someone who would make these for me so I could have them in my shop.

And as so often in the field, getting to the point took... longer. In that case, I think it was about 7 years. The process usually starts with getting enough information about the object (which was not the big thing in this case), then try and find someone able to do it, figure out if they are also willing to do it. Quite often, this is where you go back to square one because things don't work out due to whatever reason (don't want to do this, would do this but has no time, would do it but the price would be too high, would do it but cannot get the materials, or reason unknown because at one point I just don't get any answer back on my mails). 

Repeat from "try and find someone able to do it" as often as necessary. Then, once someone is found, you need to settle on a price, then I put in the actual order, and then... eventually... it's in the shop. 

As are these now: 

And if you're interested, you can find it here. (There's not much more information, but the magical button, in case you need one of them now...)

I've finally made more photos of things to go into the shop - needles, to be specific.  

When I'm sewing, I like to use non-ferrous needles for wool fabrics, but strongly prefer iron or steel needles for linen. Usually also for silk, but that may be due to the fact that I can usually get thinner needles in iron than in brass or bronze.

Anyways, these are hand-forged in Germany, and they will finally go into the shop in the next few days! 

Sometimes, things take a lot longer than one thinks possible.

Case in point? Well... I've been looking for a blacksmith willing to make shears for me for ages. Probably best if I don't try and find out exactly how long! It's been more than a decade for sure though. 

A lot of people were interested at first, but then it never worked out - most of the time, I was just ghosted. However, I have finally found somebody to make them for me, which means that they are now available in the shop.

They are small, like many of the originals were, with about 13.5 cm length - and they will cut fabrics very well. I've tried all of them on different kinds (linen, wool, and silk), and they did manage all of them fine. 

And now we will see if other people are as over the moon about these as I am... I find it hard to believe still that they are now really here!