From a room in Kumaon
to your hallway

How it travels

Finished pieces are checked and packed in the Satoli workshop, driven down to the despatch point — Delhi, presumably; name it, and flown out. We looked hard at sea freight, because air freight is most of our carbon: it adds about eleven weeks and pieces arrive damp, and damp is fatal to a cream linen with red thread on it. We are still looking, and we would rather admit that than claim a green route we do not use.

Where we ship, what it costs, how long it takes

Delivery is calculated at checkout. The table below is what to expect, quoted from dispatch rather than from the moment you press pay — a piece already in stock leaves within how many working days, and a commission takes as long as it takes.

United Kingdom

Cost · working days · carried by courier. Duty and VAT are included in the price / are charged on arrival — this depends entirely on where the trading entity sits and is the single most complained-about thing in cross-border retail, so it needs a real answer.

European Union

Cost · working days · courier. Import VAT and duty are charged on arrival by your own customs authority and are not included.

United States and Canada

Cost · working days · courier. Whether the de minimis threshold means most orders arrive without a charge — worth stating if true, because it is good news and nobody expects it.

India

Cost · working days · courier.

Elsewhere

Write to us at the contact email address and we will find out and quote you properly. We would rather do that than publish a rate we have not tested.

Tracking

You get a dispatch email with a tracking number. Cross-border tracking goes quiet for a few days in the middle, usually while the parcel is waiting for a customs clearance that nobody scans. If it has been silent for more than how many days, write to us and we will chase it from our end.

Duties and taxes

If your parcel crosses a border, your own customs authority may charge import duty and local sales tax before releasing it. That charge is set by your government, collected by the carrier, and is yours to pay — we never see it and cannot refund it.

We declare every parcel at its true value. We are asked fairly often to mark an order as a gift or to under-declare it, and the answer is no. It is fraud, it invalidates the insurance, and a business built on saying exactly what a cushion costs and who was paid for it does not get to lie on the customs form.

If it arrives damaged

Photograph the box before you open it any further, photograph the piece, and send both to the contact email address within how many days — the carrier will impose a limit and it is usually short. We will replace or refund it, and we cover the postage. You do not need to argue with the carrier; that is our job.

Returns

You have fourteen days from delivery to change your mind about a piece bought from stock, for any reason at all, and another fourteen to send it back. The full mechanics — what we refund, when, and the one category that is excluded — are in the terms and conditions, and they are written to be readable.

In short: email us, send it back in a condition you would be happy to receive, and we refund the price and the standard outbound postage within fourteen days of it arriving. Return postage is yours unless the piece was faulty or not as described. From this distance that is not a trivial sum, which is why we would much rather answer a question before you order than process a return after.

Commissions and personalised pieces cannot be returned for a change of mind, because they were made once, for you. We will always say so before you commit.

Questions we are actually asked

Is it really hand-stitched?

Yes, every cross, by one woman, and her name is on the card in the parcel and on the Makers page. A 45cm cushion face is roughly eleven thousand individual crosses and takes nine to fourteen days. There is no machine anywhere in this that does the stitching.

Why does mine look different from the photograph?

Because it is a different one. The cloth is hand-woven and the stitching is a person’s, so no two pieces match and none of them matches a photograph exactly. What you should not see is a dropped stitch, a seam that has come apart, or colour that has run — those are faults and we will put them right.

How do I know the maker was actually paid?

The Impact ledger shows what share of the price reaches her, in the real price of the real piece, and the same breakdown appears on every product page next to the button. She is paid within fourteen days of the piece leaving her hands, whether or not we have sold it. We publish our rate card to any buyer who asks for it.

Can I commission something?

Yes. Sizes, colourways and motifs are all possible; write to the contact email address with what you have in mind and the room it is going in. Expect how long and note that a commission cannot be returned for a change of mind.

Do you sell to shops?

Yes. Write to the trade contact address and we will send the wholesale terms. A stockist’s margin comes out of our own line in the ledger — never out of the maker’s.

Do you gift wrap?

Every parcel is already wrapped in unbleached tissue and cotton tape, because that is how they travel. If it is a present, tell us at checkout and we will leave the invoice out and write a card by hand.

Can I visit?

Whether the Avalon estate or the Satoli workshop can receive visitors, and how to arrange it. If the answer is no, or not yet, say that — it is a perfectly good answer and a vague one just generates email.

What if I want to learn the stitch?

Write to us. The Kumaoni motifs are not ours to own and we will send you the charts.