What a tariffic week it’s been (and a shop update!).

(see what I did there?)

Hey everyone! Wow, so this trade war has been fun, eh? -_-

If you’re unaware of what’s been going on, here’s an article from the cbc stating where we are right now. But essentially Trump was set to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods starting Feb 4, with no minimum, by the way, which means something as small as a sticker would be subject to this tax. Trudeau retaliated, and now there’s a 30 day delay.

That isn’t all. The additional tariffs proposed for Chinese goods DID take effect Feb 4th. What wasn’t clear at first, was whether or not that would apply to goods made in China but shipped from Canada. We know now, that yes. It does. What also happened was the removal of the de minimis provision, allowing an $800 import limit per day, per individual. This will be devastating for e-commerce, and as always small businesses, Canadian or not, are going to be the worst hit. If these Canadian tariffs end up going through as they are, businesses will be hit twice, with both Chinese import tariffs and Canadian ones. I’m not going to go into the economic devastation this would cause on both sides of the border, there are lots of articles available online at this point, I encourage you do do some light googling. Those eggs are about to get even pricier.

✦ Hold on, at the bottom of this email is a preview of new items that will be in the shop update, but there’s some stuff you should read first. Think of them like a treat after doing something boring.

What it means for me, and other Canadian artists and businesses like mine, is that not only will our work cost more for our American customers (and most of my online shop customers are from the US) but the retaliatory tariffs on American goods and on Chinese imports mean a lot of the materials we use to make our art/products will significantly increase in price, not to mention the supply chain interruptions as shipments bottleneck at customs. For most micro businesses like mine, it’s just not sustainable. I’m not giving up entirely, but I’ve been pivoting and pivoting and pivoting and I’m getting dizzy. I don’t know how many times I can have the rug pulled out from under me and keep getting up, so for now, everything is up in the air, and I’m making lists and trying to tackle things one at a time.

The first thing I’ll be doing is encouraging my American collectors to not sit on anything that is currently up in the shop that they’ve been eyeballing. There’s a good chance there will be no better time to purchase. The Canadian dollar is low, so not only are there no Canadian tariffs for the time being, but due to the exchange rate your dollar will go much further. I did this earlier last week and after a bunch of orders I've closed the shop so I can catch up and focus on--

The second thing is a shop update! I’ve been sitting on a lot of goodies I made for my xmas markets and haven’t had a chance to get up in the shop yet. The preview of those is at the end of this email. I’m setting the date for next Tuesday, February 11th at 12pm EST password protected for patreon patrons only (you can sign up here if you would like that to be you) and Wednesday, February 12th at 12pm EST I’ll remove the password and the shop will be open for everyone. I know they aren’t generally the best days of the week for shopping, but I need time to get the orders together and I’d like to get them across the border plenty ahead of the March 4th deadline. My handmade ceramic items will not be subject to tariffs at this time.

The third thing is…well I don’t know. I can’t make any plans at all while we hang around in limbo. We’ve hit the end of the things I can do right now. I wish I had some sage advice, something uplifting to end on. Usually I deal with scary things by making jokes, like that time I asked my ultrasound technician if the calcification in my breast was a tooth, and if they’d let me keep my Boob Tooth (it wasn’t and it’s still in there). But I don’t have any jokes, I guess the universe can mess with my tits, but when it threatens my work, I lose my sense of humour.

These Mug warming stumps are my favourite thing, btw. They have holes in the top, and will slow down the cooling of your warm beverages (they don’t work so well that they will keep it actually hot) and they work best with flatter bottomed mugs with little to no foot. The more direct contact the better. Also they just look really cute with random stuff on top.

That was a super long email full of stuff that was both stressful and boring! If you made it all the way to the end I’m so thankful to you. If you’re a patreon patron receiving this newsletter, mosey on over to the most recent post on patreon and you’ll find the password for the shop there. It won’t work until Tuesday, though, so hold your horses.