Care cards for handmade objects: what to include, craft by craft

You know what your work needs. You chose the oil, the glaze, the leather dressing, the alloy. The owner does not, and in five years they will not remember what you told them at delivery. A care card is how your knowledge stays with the piece after it leaves the workshop.

A good card also saves you trouble. A lot can go wrong through ordinary mistakes: the wrong cleaner, a dishwasher cycle, a radiator, a damp drawer. A clear card can prevent some of those, and when a piece does come back for repair, it tells you and the owner what was done in the first place.

This guide sets out what a care card should contain, with examples for furniture, jewellery, ceramics and glass, leather and textiles, instruments and metalwork. The examples come from published manufacturer care guidance, so you can see how established makers phrase the same advice. Use them as a pattern, not as a substitute for your own knowledge of what you made.

Key takeaways

• A care card should cover materials, finish, everyday cleaning, what to avoid, maintenance and how often, the environment the piece needs, and a repair contact.
• Write one instruction per line, start with a verb, and name the actual product or finish you used.
• Give a test or a sign rather than only a date for maintenance, because use varies from home to home.
• Tell the owner what is normal, such as tarnish on silver or seasonal movement in wood, so they do not mistake it for a fault.
• Keep the card with the piece twice: printed in the box or drawer, and on a stable web page reached by a QR code next to the serial number.
• The EU General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 sets information duties for manufacturers; check with your authority how they apply to you.

What a care card is for, and what it is not

A care card is instructions. It answers the owner's practical questions: how do I clean this, what will damage it, what does it need from me and when.

It is not a certificate, a warranty or a sales document. Those have their own jobs. A certificate of authenticity records who made the piece and what it is. A guarantee sets out what you will put right and for how long. The care card can point to both, but keep it to care, so it stays short and the owner actually reads it.

The fields every card needs

Field	What to write	Example
Piece and serial	Name of the piece and its serial number	Dining table, 2026-017
Materials	Main materials, precisely	Solid European oak; brass inserts
Finish or treatment	Finish type and product, if relevant	Hardwax oil, two coats
Everyday cleaning	What to use and how	Wipe with a well-wrung damp cloth, then dry
Avoid	The few things that cause real damage	Abrasive cleaners, standing water, hot dishes
Maintenance	What, how and when, with a sign to watch for	Re-oil when water stops beading
Environment	Light, heat, humidity, storage	Keep away from radiators and direct sun
What is normal	Changes that are not faults	Colour deepens with light over the first year
Repairs and contact	Who to ask, how to reach them	Your workshop's email and phone
Version	Date the card was written	Care card v2, November 2026

Not every field applies to every piece. A ceramic bowl has no finish product to name. A ring has no humidity range worth stating. Leave out what does not apply instead of filling space.

Examples by craft

The examples below show how manufacturers phrase care advice for each material family. They are there to show the level of detail that works. Your own card should reflect what you actually made and tested.

Furniture and woodwork

Carl Hansen & Søn's care page for solid wood tabletops covers most of the fields above in a few lines. It tells owners to wipe with a soft cloth in warm water, to remove spills and glass marks immediately, and never to use abrasive cleaners, steel wool or polish on solid wood. It gives an environment range: a relative humidity of 30 to 60% for a solid wood table, with a warning that drier air raises the risk of cracks.

It also carries a safety line that every card for an oil finish should include: cloths and sponges used for oil treatment can ignite by themselves, so they must be stored in an airtight metal or glass container. If you supply a maintenance kit with oil, put that warning on the card, not only on the tin.

Our guide to oiled wood table care has the full detail for owners, including the water-drop test for when to re-oil.

Jewellery and silver

Georg Jensen's jewellery care page is a good model of short, specific advice. It says sterling silver will tarnish over time, and tells owners to polish occasionally with a soft impregnated polishing cloth. It warns against silver dip, which it says corrodes the surface and speeds up tarnishing. It also notes that the dark recesses on oxidised pieces are intentional and can be removed by over-enthusiastic polishing.

The page tells owners to keep jewellery away from cosmetics, hairspray and perfume, and to put it on last. It suggests taking jewellery off before bed, in the shower and when washing hands, and storing pieces separately in a lined box or pouch to avoid scratches. For white gold, it explains that the surface is rhodium plated and the plating can be renewed.

That last point is worth copying. Telling an owner in advance that a finish wears and can be renewed turns a future complaint into a planned service. See silver and gold jewellery care for more.

Ceramics and glass

For ceramics, the most useful thing a card can do is say plainly which uses you have tested. Dishwasher, microwave, oven and freezer are the questions owners ask. If you have tested a glaze and body in a domestic dishwasher, say so. If you have not, say that too, and recommend hand washing.

State anything that is decorative only, such as a piece that should not hold food or liquid, or a lustre or metallic decoration. Say whether sudden temperature changes are a risk for that body, and what that means in practice, for example not moving a dish straight from the oven to a cold surface. Our guide to handmade ceramics care covers this in more depth.

Leather and textiles

Textiles already have a shared language for care. The international care labelling code using symbols is published as ISO 3758; GINETEX, the international association for textile care labelling, reports that the current fourth edition, ISO 3758:2023, replaced the 2012 version. If you make textiles, use the standard symbols on a sewn label and repeat the instructions in words on the card, because not every owner reads the symbols.

For leather, the card should name the type of leather and its finish, say how to clean off marks and spills, and name the conditioner or dressing you recommend and how often. Tell the owner what to expect as the leather ages, so normal darkening and creasing are not mistaken for damage. See leather goods care.

Instruments

Wooden instruments are where the environment field matters most. Taylor Guitars states that the optimal range for its guitars is 45 to 55% relative humidity, and that its guitars are built in a controlled environment at 46%. It recommends a digital hygrometer because analogue, needle-style models fall out of calibration easily, and says that in places prone to severe dryness or cold, such as heated homes, owners must use a guitar humidifier.

That is a model for any wooden instrument card: a target range, a way to measure it, and the season when it matters. Our guide to humidity and wooden instruments explains the signs of a dry instrument.

Knives and metalwork

Opinel's care advice for carbon steel blades with wooden handles is short and precise. It says not to immerse the knife in water, because the wooden handle could warp, and that pocket knives should not go in the dishwasher. It tells owners to dry the blade immediately with a dry, soft tea towel, and recommends wiping the blade with cooking oil before closing the knife to prevent oxidation.

For forged or carbon steel work, also tell the owner that a darkening patina is normal and protects the steel, if that is true of the steel you used, and how to deal with spots of rust. See carbon steel knife care.

Writing it so people follow it

Care advice is easy to ignore when it is vague. "Handle with care" tells nobody anything. These habits make a card easier to follow:

• Start each line with a verb. "Wipe", "dry", "store", "avoid". The owner should be able to act on each line on its own.
• One instruction per line. If a line has "and" in it twice, split it.
• Name things. "Osmo Polyx-Oil" or "hardwax oil" is better than "a suitable oil". "Soft cotton cloth" is better than "a cloth".
• Give a sign, then an interval. "Re-oil when water no longer beads on the surface, usually once or twice a year" is easier to act on than a date alone.
• Give the reason in a few words when it changes behaviour. "Do not soak, the handle can swell and split" is remembered; "do not soak" is forgotten.
• Say what is normal. Tarnish, patina, colour change in timber and seasonal movement are not faults. A sentence on the card saves an anxious email.
• Use both unit systems where owners might need them. For example 45 to 55% relative humidity, or 25 mm (1 in).
• Do not promise what you cannot control. "Will last a lifetime" is not a care instruction. Describe what the owner can do.

Write the card in the language the owner reads. If you sell to clients in more than one country, keep a version in each language you sell in.

Keep it with the object

A care card in an email is gone within a year. Give it two homes.

On paper, with the piece. Print it on card stock and put it where it will be found when needed: in the drawer of a table, the case of an instrument, the box of a ring. You can also fix a small label under a piece with the serial and a short line, such as "Care instructions: scan the code or visit the address below".

Online, behind a QR code. A QR code next to the serial number can open a page with the full care card, photos and the piece's history. The page has to outlive several versions of your website, so use a short, permanent address on a domain you control. Our guide to maker's marks, serial numbers and QR codes covers sizing and placing an engraved code.

In your records. Keep a copy of every card version against the serial numbers it was issued with. When a piece comes back in ten years, you will know exactly what the owner was told.

Where EU product safety rules come in

This section describes what official sources say. It is not legal advice.

The EU General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 replaced the earlier General Product Safety Directive and has applied since 13 December 2024. Article 9 of the Regulation sets out the manufacturer's duties. UK government guidance, written for businesses placing products on the market in Northern Ireland, summarises them too. They include:

• before placing a product on the market, the manufacturer must carry out an internal risk analysis and draw up technical documentation, and keep it for 10 years (Article 9(2) and (3));
• the product must be identifiable by consumers in an easily visible and legible way, for example by a batch or serial number, or on the packaging or an accompanying document where the product's size or nature does not allow it;
• the manufacturer must indicate their name, registered trade name or trademark, and postal and electronic address;
• where a product cannot be used safely as intended without them, the manufacturer must provide clear instructions and safety information in a language consumers can easily understand.

The same guidance notes it is not exhaustive and recommends independent legal advice where obligations are unclear. Which language counts as easily understood is set by each Member State. If you sell into the EU, check with the market surveillance authority in the countries you sell to, or with a lawyer, how these duties apply to your pieces.

A care card is a natural place for the serial, your contact details and any safety warning, such as the oily-rag warning above. Whether it satisfies any legal duty depends on your product and is not something this guide can confirm.

A template you can copy

CARE CARD
Piece: [name]                    Serial: [2026-017]
Made by: [workshop name], [town]

MATERIALS
[Main materials, precisely]

FINISH
[Finish type and product, number of coats]

EVERY DAY
- [Verb + instruction]
- [Verb + instruction]

AVOID
- [The few things that cause real damage, with a reason]

MAINTENANCE
- [What to do], when [sign to watch for], usually [rough interval]

WHAT IS NORMAL
[Changes that are not faults]

SAFETY
[Any warning, e.g. oily cloths can self-ignite: store in a sealed metal container]

REPAIRS AND QUESTIONS
[Email] · [Phone] · [Short web address or QR code]

Care card v[1], [month year]

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and how they apply depends on the facts of each case. Before a decision about your own contract, product or business, check the current text with the relevant authority or ask a lawyer.

Sources

• Tabletops in solid wood: maintenance and care, Carl Hansen & Søn: cleaning with warm water, removing spills, no abrasive cleaners or steel wool, 30–60% relative humidity, self-igniting oily cloths stored in airtight metal or glass containers
• Product care: jewellery and watches, Georg Jensen: silver tarnish, impregnated polishing cloth, no silver dip, oxidised finish, cosmetics and perfume, removing jewellery, storage, rhodium plating on white gold
• GINETEX, the international association for textile care labelling: publication of ISO 3758:2023, care labelling code using symbols, replacing ISO 3758:2012
• Using a guitar humidifier, Taylor Guitars: 45–55% relative humidity, 46% in the factory, digital hygrometer, humidifiers in heated homes
• Cleaning your Opinel, Opinel: no immersion, no dishwasher for pocket knives, drying immediately, oiling the blade before closing
• Opinel FAQ, Opinel USA: carbon blades greased and dried after each use to prevent rust
• EU Regulation 2023/988 on general product safety: detailed guidance, GOV.UK: manufacturer duties on identification, contact details, instructions and safety information; application from 13 December 2024; not exhaustive
• Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety, EUR-Lex: adoption on 10 May 2023, manufacturer duties in Article 9(2), (3), (5), (6) and (7), repeal of Directive 2001/95/EC and application from 13 December 2024 (Articles 50 and 52)