Why handmade beats mass-produced for garden decor

We are biased: we run a workshop. But the case for handmade is not sentimental. It is mostly about how each piece is engineered for the climate it ends up in.

A mass-produced windmill is engineered for the easiest shared denominator. The same model ships to dry Spain and damp Yorkshire, and the timber thickness is set somewhere in the middle. Our 100 cm model uses 28 mm structural timber in the legs because we tested 18 mm and 22 mm and watched them warp in two winters.

Then there are the fasteners. Bulk-built decor uses galvanised screws because they are cheap; we use stainless throughout because we got tired of replacing rusted heads. The difference is measured in pence per piece and years of service.

Finish is the other invisible cost. A factory-stained windmill gets one pass of pigmented stain. Ours get the wood oiled, sanded, oiled again. That is the step that makes a piece weather to honey instead of grey.

All of which justifies the price gap — about £50 on a 1 m windmill, compared with bulk imports. You can save that money. We just think the maths catches up with you in year three.