What counts as handmade

Luma Market exists because handmade deserves to mean something. This article answers the practical question of whether your work qualifies. The full picture is in our Handmade Standard.

The short answer

An item qualifies if it’s made by the person selling it: they controlled how it was made, and they were meaningfully involved in finishing it.

How skilled you are doesn’t come into it. A first wobbly bowl qualifies on the same terms as one from a potter with thirty years behind them, as long as the making was yours.

The test we apply: if removing the human makes the product identical, it doesn’t belong on Luma.

UK law has no definition of handmade. The longer read on what the word means, and what the law does say about it, is What is handmade?

What isn’t allowed

However a listing describes itself, none of this is permitted:

• Mass-produced goods, made in factories or by third-party manufacturers, including where the maker owns the machine
• Dropshipping, meaning reselling items you don’t make
• Print-on-demand, where you upload a design and an automated service prints and ships it
• AI-generated designs printed on, transferred onto or built into the piece
• Hand-assembled products where every part is factory-made
• Fan art, or anything carrying a trademarked character, logo or brand
• Reselling second-hand, vintage or retail goods
• Digital files for sale: patterns, templates, downloads
• Photography, books, music and film
• Services, rather than a physical object

Some things can’t be sold here however they’re made, such as food, plants and mains electricals. Prohibited items lists them.

Patterns and designs you’ve bought

A pattern, template or design file you’ve bought is fine to make from, as long as its licence lets you sell what you make. Some pattern licences allow it and some don’t, so check before you list. The piece itself still has to be made by you.

3D prints are the one place this needs care. A print from a bought file belongs here if you do significant finishing by hand (painting, sanding, assembly) or it’s one part of something bigger you make. A print sold as it comes off the printer doesn’t, whoever designed it.

Fan art and other people’s brands

Painting, sewing or carving something yourself doesn’t give you the right to the character on it. A hand-knitted Disney jumper, a painted Games Workshop miniature, a Nike-branded keyring: all made by hand, none of them allowed here.

The rights holder can act against you personally, not just against us. Original work in a style you love is fine. A recognisable character, logo or slogan isn’t.

Soap and cosmetics

Soap and cosmetics are allowed. They carry safety duties the rest of the catalogue doesn’t, and those duties are yours.

Soap and cosmetics count as cosmetic products under UK law. Before you sell one to the public you need a safety assessment from a qualified assessor, a Product Information File, labelling that lists the INCI ingredients and names a responsible person, and a notification on the government’s SCPN portal. Your responsibilities as a maker goes through it.

Tools and equipment

Using tools doesn’t disqualify anything. A sewing machine, a pottery wheel, a laser cutter, a 3D printer can all sit inside a genuine handmade process, as long as the skill and the finishing are yours.

The question is always whether the tool serves the maker or replaces them. A laser cutter whose pieces you assemble or finish by hand is a tool. One that turns out a finished product you take straight off the bed is a factory. AI works the same way: using it to spark an idea, or as a reference you work from by hand, is fine. The AI image ending up in the piece isn’t. Our full standards work through the specific cases.

How makers disclose it

Every listing carries a "How it’s made" section. The making process is required before a listing can go live: a real description of how the thing gets made, not the word "handmade".

Materials and photos of the work in progress are optional, and both help. They tell shoppers what they’re buying, and they’re the clearest evidence we have if a listing is ever questioned.

Every photo has to be of the real thing. A mockup (your design placed onto a template or a stock photo), a 3D render or a supplier’s image isn’t allowed. Nor are AI-generated or AI-enhanced images, and that includes AI backgrounds, generative fill and AI upscaling. A real photo of the piece in a real setting, props and all, is fine. To show a personalisation on a listing, use a photo of one you’ve made before. In messages with a shopper, a mockup or sketch is fine as long as you say it’s an illustration. Cropping and fixing the light or colour is fine, and so is whatever your phone’s camera does on its own.

When a listing doesn’t meet the standard

Anyone can report a listing they think falls short, and we spot-check listings ourselves too. Reporting a listing covers what we can do about one, from a suggestion to closing a shop.

If we get in touch about one of yours

You’ll get an email and a notice under Notices in your dashboard. Don’t panic when one arrives: a notice can simply be asking you to improve something, such as the description of how an item is made.

If you think we’ve got it wrong, tell us through the contact link at the foot of your Notices page. We’d rather be corrected than be consistent. A report from a shopper isn’t a verdict.