How it is made

Almost everything in this catalogue is simple enough to describe in a sentence and easy enough to get wrong in a dozen places. A dish brush is a handle, bristles and a hole to hang it by. Whether it lasts six weeks or six months comes down to how the bristles are anchored, and that is decided long before the first one is cut.

This page is about those decisions. It is written from what we specify rather than from adjectives, and where we do not have a figure it says so.

The specification is written in numbers

Every product we make has a written specification, and the rule for writing one is that it contains as few adjectives as possible. Bristle diameter rather than "firm". Tuft anchor pull force rather than "durable". Wall thickness rather than "sturdy".

This matters for a boring reason: adjectives cannot be checked against a sample and numbers can. A supplier who has quietly moved to a thinner resin has not broken a promise about sturdiness, because no such promise is checkable. They have missed a wall thickness, and that shows up in twenty seconds with a gauge.

The specification is not there to describe the product to a customer. It is there so that two people looking at two samples from two different years can agree on whether they are the same thing.
From our internal note on writing specifications

What gets checked before a batch ships

The check list is short and it is not the one people expect. The most common defect on a catalogue like this is not breakage.

Count. A pack labelled a hundred is counted, by weight against a reference on small pieces and one by one on large ones. A short pack is the single most common complaint on multipacks anywhere, and it is invisible in a warehouse.
Anchorage, on anything with bristles or tufts, tested by pulling rather than by looking. A tuft that comes out in a hand comes out in a sink.
Dimensions, on the pieces where a millimetre decides whether a lid seats or a cover fits.
Declared materials on anything that touches food, against the declaration rather than against a description.
Colour and print against the reference. A batch two shades off is not a cosmetic problem; it is a batch nobody can use for a wedding.
Carton and inner packing, because transit damage happens at corners and to whatever is packed against the outside wall.

Food contact, and what that phrase actually means

A good part of this catalogue touches food: bowl covers, egg rings, moulds, jars, serving tools. "Food safe" and "food grade" are printed on products like these constantly, and it is worth knowing what sits behind the words, because most of the time nothing does.

What the FDA actually requires of a food contact material

In the United States, a substance that comes into contact with food and is a food additive has to be authorised before it is used: through a food contact notification, through a food additive regulation, or through a threshold of regulation exemption under 21 CFR 170.39. The notification process was created by an amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 1997, and a notification is specific to the company that submitted it and to the exact intended use. The FDA assesses the nature of the components that migrate into food, the cumulative dietary exposure across all authorised uses, and the safe level of that exposure, assuming for the calculation that the substance captures the entire market for its intended use so that the estimate errs high. The agency states plainly that because of the inherent limitations of science it can never be absolutely certain that any substance carries no risk.

This is a description of a regulatory process rather than a safety claim about any particular product.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Understanding How the FDA Regulates Substances that Come into Contact with Food read 10 August 2026

What follows from that for us is narrow and specific. An authorisation attaches to a material and a use, not to a brand or a product name. So the phrase we use on a product page is the one the specification declares, and where a component was never declared for food contact, no amount of it being adjacent to food in a photograph turns it into a food contact material.

Small parts, and why some of what we make is not for young children

A catalogue built on multipacks of small objects has an obvious hazard running through it, and it deserves a section rather than a footnote.

What the small parts rule covers

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission bans children's products intended for children under three that present a choking, aspiration or ingestion hazard because of small parts, under 16 CFR part 1501. A small part is defined mechanically rather than by judgement: any object that fits, without being compressed and in any orientation, entirely inside the small parts cylinder specified at 16 CFR 1501.4, which approximates the fully expanded throat of a child under three. That includes a whole article, a separate part of one, and a piece that breaks off during use and abuse testing. Several categories are excluded from the ban by 16 CFR 1501.3, among them balloons, articles made of paper, writing materials, children's clothing and its fasteners, and grooming, feeding and hygiene products such as toothbrushes, drinking glasses and eating utensils. Separately, 16 CFR 1500.19 requires choking hazard warning labelling on certain products that are or contain small parts, balloons, small balls or marbles.

This is general information about a federal rule. It is not a determination about any particular product, and it does not replace the labelling on what you buy.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Small Parts Ban and Choking Hazard Labeling read 10 August 2026

The practical consequence is that a good deal of this catalogue is not intended for young children, and we would rather say that once, clearly, than bury it. Favour tins, jump rings, beads, small moulds and craft findings are all objects that fit the cylinder. They belong in a craft drawer or on a party table, not in the hands of a toddler.

Materials, and the words we do not use

Every page that carries a material carries the one the specification declares: stainless steel, silicone, bamboo, polypropylene, polyester. Where the specification does not name one, the page has no material row.

Three phrases you will not find anywhere on this site. "Medical grade", because it has no agreed meaning outside specific regulated devices and is used here purely as decoration. "Hypoallergenic", because it is not a defined standard for a plastic jar. "Eco friendly", unless we can say precisely what about it is and against what alternative.

The limits of what we will say

A founding date, a factory address and photographs of a workshop are not published here; what is published is what each product is made of and how it is checked. Nothing we make treats, prevents or cures a condition. Where a page touches a rule, it cites the agency and links the page, and the roles behind the work are described on our team rather than illustrated with stock portraits.

What we will state is anything a specification states, in the same words, on every page of Patelai multipacks.