Shipping to the USA (and Everywhere Else)

Shipping pottery from Canada to the USA has become a nightmare on August 28th 2025. This previously seamless process included neither paperwork nor taxes, and now it’s a whole ordeal. A majority of Canadian and European artists and artisans have taken the difficult decision to stop selling to US customers and I’m now part of this.

Most of my customers are based in the United States so this is a real issue and it’s actually threatening my livelihood at the moment. This is why I’m actively looking for solutions to resume shipping to the USA.

Tariff Exemption for Canada Made Art

My stuff has two ways it’s exempted from tariffs: one is the CUSMA treaty that exempts some Canadian made products from tariffs, my pottery is 100% Canadian made, with Canadian Clays and some USA bought glazes and tools. The other exemptions is for one of a kind artwork. Each piece I create is made to order and unique.

Unprepared customs and carriers

This should ensure a nice workflow but it doesn’t because the US has decided to make other countries enforce their last minute decisions. Meaning that Canada carriers have to collect duties from us instead of working like everyone else who collects duties upon delivery.

Add to this the fact that nobody was prepared to comply and enforce anything, it’s a complete mess and a huge disruption to the global trade system. I’m but a small artist and artisan working on a very small scale with less than 100 packages a month, I can’t imagine the mess for larger industries.

This will probably run smoother in the coming month but damage has been done.

What to do if you are a USA based Customer

For my US based customers, I have several ways to both buy my art and support me so I can go through this and keep working independently (because I’m starting to look at job ads XD) :

• Buy your piece and select HOLD MY ORDER, this will simply reserve your piece and I will ship it when it’s safe. It means I might charge you shipping fees later, it also means that I will refund your piece if the fees are unreasonnable.
• Buy from my US based partners : I have 3 shop that pay me per piece sold, Inprnt for posters, The Washi Station for Washi Tape and Threadless for printed mugs
• Make a donation to Ko-Fi

Shipping to the rest of the world (us ^^)

I know all of the talk is very USA based right now but it’s also shifting because of the harsh actions of this administration. As I know shipping fees are often a pain for my South American, European, Asian and Australian customers (Africa, I see you but my art hasn’t reach you yet). I lowered the minimum order thresholds for everyone and also made the automatic currency conversion be kinder to you.

My goal is to keep working as an independent artist while staying focused on my values : making your life lighter with cute little guys as well as sustaining good practices. I want to always be as environmentally friendly as possible with my packaging and work.