Do you know that handmade toys should comply with all the safety regulations, even if we made and sell them in small scale? Yes, if we want to legally sell them in the UK and Europe they need to reach the safety's standards.
The law says that all soft toys should be suitable from birth. It means that we can not put an age restriction or a warning for small parts, etc. A soft toy (a teddy) should be safe for a baby.
But what about keyrings? Well if they have play value then they need testing, What we considered play value? if it has a face or could be attractive for a baby, then it needs testing.
As a toymaker is our responsibility to make sure that the toys we make are safe.
We have to options, send the toys to a lab that would run all the test or run all the test ourselves and self-certificate. I self-certificate my toys.
I use materials that have been tested for harmful chemicals, etc. Also, all the materials are new, washable and kid-friendly.
To ensure the safety of the toys, I make two samples (washed and unwashed) and run some physical test on them:
- Tension: hang weight from each limb, ear, eyes etc. to make sure that they do not come off the toy.
- Torque: you twist the parts
- Flammability: yep, I burn them to make sure that the burning rate is within the legal parameters.
I also need to keep all the test related paperwork up to date.
Tension and Torque test
Flammability Test