Frequently Asked Questions

I sell my work in restock-style sales. It takes me 4-6 weeks to make enough pottery to fire my kiln, and when it is ready, I sell it on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you do not see anything for sale on my website, it means that I am working on a restock.

I only offer pre-orders every once in a while, usually for items that require me to use gold luster. But I would say 90% of the time I sell my pottery in first-come-first-serve sales, selling pre-made work.

As for custom work, I do not do custom work at this time.

Pottery takes time, and anything can happen between when I start the pottery, and finish it. Any production issues may require me to give refunds or make people wait longer for their pre-orders. They're a stressful way to sell pottery, so I don't like to do them very often.

I am sorry if you are not successful in buying something in one of my restocks. My tips for increased success are as follows:

• Create an account on my website
• Save your shipping info ahead of time
• Subscribe to my email list to learn the date/time of the restocks
• Set alarms on your phone, and log in with time to spare
• Refresh your page at the time of the restock until you are able to add items to your cart
• Have your payment info ready to go (accepted forms of payment are at the bottom of my page, but I suggest you consider options like Google Pay, Apple Pay, or PayPal for speedy checkout).

These are merely suggestions for increased success, and do not guarantee a successful checkout. Shopping for multiple items during a restock may also result in an item in your cart selling out. Items added to your cart are NOT reserved.

In the interest of fairness, I do not reserve listings.

Listings are also not reserved once they are in your cart. I will refund shipping overages if multiple orders are placed, given that it is still safe to group your packages together (sometimes it's best to limit the number of pots in a box for shipping safety).

I cannot commit to an answer until each complete piece comes out of the kiln. Popular items do come back, but maybe not two restocks in a row. If you miss out on an item you wanted, keep watching the restock emails for the next time they come up. (I wish items could be available immediately after they sell out, but pottery takes time.)

Please subscribe to my email list to learn first. Restock dates are also displayed in my Instagram and TikTok bios, as well as the main page of my website. If there is no date listed, I do not have a restock scheduled yet.

I do take into consideration what people like, and what sells well, but this is still my art, and if I only do what other people want, then I feel the quality of my work suffers as a result.

TikTok bowls and plates are one-offs. I make one for the video on TikTok, and that’s it. They’re incredibly labor intensive, and if I were to make multiples of them it would reduce the overall amount of other items I can make much faster.

Everyone has different preferences for which direction they like the detail on their mugs facing when using the mug with their dominant hand. I had to make a choice, so the assumption is that when using one of my mugs, you would have the detail facing OUT. However, if you’re right handed and like the detail facing IN, you might consider buying a “lefty” mug.

Yes, everything I sell is made by me by hand. How it’s made differs depending on the item. Mugs are all hand thrown on a wheel, as are plates, bowls, etc., and decorative items such as pumpkins and skulls are slip cast by me. Please read product descriptions so you are informed on what you are buying. Failure to read product descriptions is the fault of the buyer, NOT the seller.

No, unfortunately. This is not a feature that Shopify allows. However, upon successful checkout, you may be asked if you'd like to save your payment information. This is the only way payment information can be saved for future orders.

Practical Magic mugs, like any other mug I sell, show up in my restocks every few months. 

Previously I had (on a trial basis) done a waitlist for these mugs, but as the number of people grew and grew on this list (over 4,000 people in total!), I realized that a waitlist was not, well... practical.

I am only one potter, and even if I were to make only Practical Magic mugs for the whole year, it would still take me four years to get to the end of the waitlist. I know that the Practical Magic style is a popular style, but I do feel as an artist that my work suffers when I make the same thing over and over for an extended period of time, so to honor how special these mugs are to me, and to be fair to myself as an artist, these mugs will continue to be sold on a first-come-first-serve basis.

** As of December 2023 I am working on a large batch of these mugs, and will be stashing them away until I get 100 built up, and can put them all in the shop at once. I expect they will hit the shop some time in early 2024.

If a piece of pottery has any type of luster on it (22k yellow or white gold, or mother of pearl), NO. It will cause an arc in your microwave.

If an item has 22k yellow or white gold luster, or mother of pearl luster, NO. If an item has delicate details, such as sculpted bits, I would err on the side of caution, and not put items the dishwasher. If it is a basic mug, or a bowl, etc., yes. However, pottery is not impervious to damage, so please exercise caution when washing any pottery in the dishwasher.

If an item has 22k white or yellow gold luster, or mother of pearl luster, NO. If it does not have these elements, yes, WITH CAUTION. How to use your pottery in the oven:

• Put your room temperature pottery and food in the oven BEFORE the preheat cycle
• Putting a room temperature piece of pottery in a hot oven may cause thermal shock, resulting in cracked or broken pottery.
• When removing pottery you have baked in, remove with safety gloves and allow the pottery to reach room temperature naturally.
• Do NOT place hot pottery in temperatures below 32ºF, as this too may cause thermal shock

All pottery sold with the purpose of use with food or beverage is glazed in stable glazes. No glazed areas that will come into contact with your food or drink are glazed in glazes that contain led, or other harmful chemicals. These surfaces can withstand mild abrasions from utensils and cutlery, but please note that handmade pottery is not the same as store bought, and may exhibit wear and tear more than other items.

Maybe. If the break is something like a handle that's been broken off, you may be able to glue it back on using a two-part epoxy glue system, but doing so is at your discretion. It's not safe to use an epoxyed handle anymore, so it would solely be a cosmetic fix.

If the break is somewhere that comes into contact with your food or drinks, you can still try to glue the pieces back together, but your pottery will no longer be food safe.

Finally, I do not provide replacements of pottery that have been broken by user error.

I can't commit to a price until each item comes out of the kiln. However, examples of my ballpark pricing schedules are below:

• Basic mug with easy design $50-60
• Mug with advanced surface detail $60-90
• Mug with ornate surface detail, which may include 22k gold or mother of pearl lusters $70-130
• Mug with ornate detail, one or multiple lusters, with crystal or rhinestone detail, $145+
• Plates $35-60
• Large bowls $45-80
• Etc...

In sum, each piece is assessed individually.

I set my prices by combining the following elements:

• Time and labor
• Materials used
• Skill level

I ship globally, with exception of the following countries due to US Postal Service shipping restrictions: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria.

All sales to Russia and Belarus have been suspended, in light of the invasion of Ukraine.

I cannot quote you, as that all depends on weight, size, and location. This is determined in real time in checkout. Please note:

• I do my best to lump multiple orders together if they are going to the same place, but sometimes it is safer to ship items separately.
• If I do lump ship, I will refund any overages of $2 or more

I use USPS and UPS. International packages leave the hands of the US Postal service and are then taken over by that country's postal service.

If an item is damaged in shipping, please email me using the reply button to the confirmation email you got from me. Please provide pictures of the damage in question, as well as your packaging. I will provide a full refund as long as I am given proof of damage.

I do not provide replacements for broken items, but I do offer early access to the next restock, where you may purchase a new piece of pottery. The design you chose may or may not be in the next restock, but this is how I try to make things right for those who are disappointed by a broken piece of pottery.

I process pottery shipments between 5-10 business days of purchase. This does not include shipping time after the package has been picked up.

I am also limited by how many packages I can ship per day. I live very rurally, so my mail carrier uses their personal vehicle. To be fair to them, I limit my package pickups to 12-15 per day. Depending on how many orders I have to ship, it may take a few days for your package to be picked up. But they will be picked up within the 5-10 business day window.

If you ordered from a pre-order listing (which I offer very seldom), please refer to the estimated production date that the listing stated, which is usually 6-8 weeks.

Unless the person who purchased the listing for you has given me instructions or permission to tell you, by law I cannot share customer information.

If the items are going to the same destination, I try my best to lump shipments and refund any overages. Sometimes if an order is too big and it wouldn’t be safe to ship the items together anyway, I will ship in multiple boxes and not refund shipping. Your pottery arriving intact is my first goal!

If a shipment from Pottery by Danielle is stolen after it is marked Delivered by the USPS or UPS, you will need to file a claim with either mail carrier. You may need to provide a copy of your purchase confirmation email you received when you checked out when you file your claim with the USPS or UPS, and the shipping confirmation number.

If a package has been sitting in transit for some time, please call your local post office, and ask for the post master to look into where your package is, using the shipping confirmation number you received in your email. They will advise you on your best options for retrieving your package. If a package appears lost, please email me and we can work together to ensure you either get your package, or a refund from the USPS.

I do not provide refunds for stolen packages. Once the package is out of my hands and in the hands of the USPS or UPS, liability transfers to those carriers.

If you are aware of theft being an issue at a particular address, please consider having the package delivered somewhere safer, or having your mail held at the post office.