Bosworth Spindles
Bosworth
Spindles is a family-owned artisan business based in Acton,
Massachusetts, that specializes in handcrafted spinning tools for
fiber craftspeople and textile artisans. For nearly four decades,
the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan and Sheila Bosworth
[photo] has built a reputation for producing premium wooden drop
spindles, portable charkhas, Journey Wheel accessories, boat
shuttles, niddy-noddies and other traditional spinning tools that
are prized for their precision, balance and exceptional
craftsmanship.
Each Bosworth product is individually handmade using carefully selected domestic and exotic hardwoods. Master craftsman Jonathan Bosworth personally hand-turns, balances, tests and finishes every tool, ensuring that each product meets the company's exacting standards for performance and durability.
Sheila Bosworth manages customer service, order fulfillment and the day-to-day business operations that support the company's personalized approach to serving customers. Their shared commitment to traditional woodworking techniques, artisanal quality and outstanding customer care has earned Bosworth Spindles a loyal following among hand spinners and fiber arts enthusiasts around the world. Sheila reached out to the Massachusetts Export Center several years ago, just before she had to ship to a customer in Finland and had found out that the new General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) for consumer products entering the EU market was going to take effect on December 13, 2024. The regulation is complicated and onerous for small businesses, and Sheila was concerned that she would be shipping her product to the EU several days before the regulation would be taking effect. Massachusetts Export Center worked with the company to unpack the new regulation and advised that the they can ship the product because it was already on the market in the EU and could be shipped without fully complying with the regulation at that time.
The Massachusetts Export Center continued to work with Bosworth Spindles to help the company understand the GPSR better and determine if its further presence on the EU market was feasible. The company attended the Massachusetts Export Center’s webinar on GPSR which was delivered by a UK law firm and scheduled several advising sessions with the Massachusetts Export Center. Finally, Sheila and Jonathan decided that the EU was no longer an attractive market for Bosworth Spindles due to the new regulation. However, they were still interested in shipping to other markets, including Canada and Australia—the two countries from which they’ve had a lot of new customer inquiries. They were worried about the tariffs, so Massachusetts Export Center staff helped the company classify their products and determine their country of origin, to make sure that they could enter the markets duty-free under the USMCA and the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement. Staff also advised the company that they currently could continue shipping to the UK, which has not adopted the new safety regulation yet. Bosworth Spindles worked with the Massachusetts Export Center to get several shipments to Canada and Australia out the door, until they felt comfortable enough to continue shipping without additional assistance.
While the majority of the company’s products are sold in the United States, international sales remain an important part of their business and meaningfully contribute to the bottom line. It’s also exciting for Bosworth Spindles that their niche, artisanal, handmade products are available in far-flung places that are thousands of miles away from Acton where the company is based.
Photos courtesy of the Bosworth Spindles website