Our newest reusable/recyclable shipping boxes streamline shipping efficiencies and add even more protection to our already extremely safe packaging practices, the best in the violin industry

Wooden spiral staircase and upright decoration with various shipping foxes covered in fragile stickers

Photo: Here we see four violins and outfits in various sizes of boxes leaving Rhiannon's home studio during the Covid-19 social distancing protocols. The violins, thankfully immune, could cuddle together as closely as they liked! Also, no, that's not a real bass but the "Fiddlebucks" cabinet full of toys for students to earn from practice.

 

Though we have seen an absolute minimum of parcels damaged (and usually not those shipped by us, rather those from vendors) Rhiannon saw the benefit in moving from paper-wrapped cases to using more protective, reusable and recyclable boxes. This improvement speeds up the label-making process and makes estimating shipping costs easier and more accurate. These boxes will also make sending remaining instruments back from a trial easier for our customers.

Also, unlike other big companies that have been known to send something as small as a flip phone with air bubbles in a box large enough to fit a 1950s television set, Fiddleheads will always choose a box with the closest fit to minimize waste. If it's not a close fit, we will cut it down and use special carton staples to customize it. That's one of the many ways dealing with a small, home-based business makes a huge difference!

 

Two large pallets of folded shipping boxes

Photo: The first round of shipping boxes after arrival.

 

We received the shipping boxes via combined method freight to cut down on costs and CO2 emissions compared to other direct shipping methods. As for possible waste, the pallets were donated to a business that gladly reuses these resources and the plastic were taken to a special film plastic recycling plant.

Even the plastic straps are reused, such as how Rhiannon turned them into "whale bone" in a corset for her period costume she sewed for her role as Concertmaster in the Brandenburg Baroque Orchestra.