Gathering Inspiration

even wee little gnomes have their daily chores

the magic of play, handcrafted lovingly by our dear friend catherine.

liam's newest playspace, that brings us all down on our knees
(for fun and in beauty!)

thank you catherine!

Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA

first, i'd like to show you a wonderful wooden play
kitchen from one of my favorite toy companies, palumba.

the kitchen is lovingly handmade using cherry, ash,
birch, & steel hinges. warm and soft to touch, and
a lovely addition in your child's room, playroom,
or like us in our kitchen.

we penny pinched, and splurged on liam with this kitchen
(and haven't regretted it, as it's posed hours of fun, and
is a beautiful work of art that will last generations,
hopefully for his children one day. we also know there is no
hazardous part, & are worry-free of lead paint or phthalates.

palumba has so many wonderful items for the home,
focusing on organic, green-built, handmade children's items
created from ALL-NATURAL materials. their toys, musical items,
art supplies and clothing are all dedicated to the natural home.

now, imagine this kind of company, nation-wide were to
CLOSE UP SHOP!
unfortunately, it's is a huge possibility.

in 2007, when toys with dangerously high lead content,
unsafe small parts, improperly secured and easily swallowed
small magnets were making children sick, the nation became
outraged. almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety
Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent
dangerous toys from being imported into the U.S. so, they passed
the consumer product safety improvement act (CPSIA) in august,
2008.  among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates
in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and
requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and
batch number. 

all of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy
manufacturers to comply with. large manufacturers who make
thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost
to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels. 

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers,
however, the costs of mandatroy testing will likely
DRIVE THEM OUT OF BUSINESS.

• a toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his
  garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford
  the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to
  assure compliance with the CPSIA.
• a work at home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to
  sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law
  or cease operations.
• a small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys
  from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety
  standards, must now pay for testing on every toy
  they import.
• and even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ
  workers in the United States face increased costs to comply
  with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had
  nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

the CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have
earned and kept the public's trust: toys made in the US, Canada,
and Europe.  the result, unless the law is modified, is that
handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.

How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator
to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. 
Use this sample letter or write your own. 
You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.

For more information, please go to: Handmade Toy Alliance