Support

Questions about an order, the calculator, or installing a sundial? Start here.

How to reach us

The fastest way is email. We're a small studio and we aim to reply within two working days (Monday–Friday, Bulgarian time, excluding Bulgarian public holidays).

• Orders, delivery, refunds: orders@nortiasundials.com
• General, press, partnership: hello@ateliernortia.com

When you write to us about an order, please include:

• Your order number (it's in the confirmation email);
• The email address you used at checkout;
• A clear description of the problem;
• For damaged or wrong items: photos showing the issue and the outer packaging.

Frequently asked questions

Ordering & payment

Do I need an account to buy something? No. The shop is guest-checkout only. We collect just your name, email, and (for physical orders) shipping address.

What payment methods do you accept? Whatever Stripe offers at checkout in your region — most major debit and credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex), and depending on your country, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA, Bancontact, iDEAL, Klarna, and others. We don't see or store your card details — Stripe handles all of it.

Do you ship to my country? We ship to the EU, UK, EFTA, Western Balkans, United States, Canada, and Rest of World. The exact list is in the country picker on the Shop page. If you don't see your country, write to us.

Can I get a VAT invoice? Yes. Email orders@nortiasundials.com with your order number and the billing name and address you'd like on the invoice. We issue invoices manually at the moment.

Digital products

Where do I download my PDF / SVG files? A download link appears on the order success page right after Stripe confirms your payment, and in your order confirmation email. Both work.

The download link expired or I lost the email. Links are valid for 30 days. After that (or if you can't find the email), write to us with your order number and we'll re-send.

Can I get a refund on a digital file? Once you've started the download, no — at checkout you waived the 14-day right of withdrawal for digital content. If you bought it but haven't downloaded it yet, write to us within 14 days and we'll refund in full. If the file is faulty (corrupt, won't open, doesn't match the order), we'll always fix it or refund. See the Refunds Policy.

Can I print the PDF Kit at home? The 2-page A4 instructions PDF, yes. The 1:1 cut-stencil PDF is typically too large to print on a consumer printer — take it to a local print shop (most copy/print shops can handle large-format PDFs) and ask for a 1:1 print with no scaling. The PDF includes a 100 mm reference ruler so you can verify the scale on the printed sheet before you cut.

What can I use the SVG file with? Any vinyl plotter, laser cutter, or CNC tool that reads SVG. The file is set up with mm units, a single group, and even-odd fill — compatible with most software (Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator, Silhouette Studio, Cricut Design Space, LightBurn, Fusion 360).

Alignment jig (physical product)

How long until my jig arrives? Production: 3–5 business days. Dispatch: within 5–7 business days of order. Delivery after dispatch: 1–2 days in Bulgaria, 5–10 days in EU/UK, 8–15 days US/Canada, 10–20 days Rest of World. Full breakdown on the Shipping Policy.

Can I cancel my jig order? If production hasn't started, yes — we'll refund in full. Once production has started, we can't, because the jig is printed individually to your dial dimensions and has no resale value (this is a legal exemption explained in §9.2 of the Terms).

My jig arrived damaged / it's the wrong size / wrong dial. We're sorry. Write to orders@nortiasundials.com within 7 days of delivery with photos and your order number. We'll refund or reprint and re-ship at our cost. You don't need to send the broken/wrong item back.

Can I get a different colour or material? The jig is printed in a standard structural PLA in a neutral colour. It's a working tool — drilled, marked, then discarded once you've used it — so the colour doesn't matter much. For special materials or finishes, write to us before ordering and we'll see what we can do.

The calculator

Is the calculator really free? Yes. No login, no signup, no email required to use the calculator or download the free 2-page PDF drawings.

What does the free PDF give me? A printable A4 drawing of your dial face with a scale bar and a 100 mm L-ruler canary on page 1, and the gnomon dimensions and substyle angle on page 2. Good for hand-painting a dial on the wall or for sanity-checking the geometry before you buy a kit.

The hour lines on my drawing look weird — is something wrong? For walls facing far from due south (or due north in the southern hemisphere), the hour lines spread asymmetrically. This is correct — it's how sundial geometry actually works for declined walls. Read our article on declining walls if you'd like to understand why.

My latitude / longitude is in some weird format. Help? The calculator accepts decimal degrees (e.g. 43.21) or degrees-minutes-seconds. The simplest way to get yours is to open Google Maps, right-click your house, and copy the first number (latitude, positive in the northern hemisphere) and the second (longitude, positive in the eastern hemisphere).

Installation

How accurate will my dial be? With our PDF Kit and a careful installation (correct wall orientation measurement, accurate latitude, gnomon mounted at the angle the kit specifies), you should achieve a few minutes' accuracy compared to a watch — comparable to historical European wall dials carved in stone. Errors come mostly from inaccurate wall-orientation measurements; spend extra time on that one.

Do I need the jig, or can I install with just the PDF? You can install with just the PDF, but it requires careful drilling and angle measurement. The jig makes mounting the gnomon straightforward — you just drill through the jig's hole at the correct angle, and the geometry is guaranteed.

My wall isn't perfectly flat / has texture / is brick. The PDF Kit and jig work on any reasonably planar surface — smooth render, brick, stone, wood, painted plaster. For very rough surfaces, you may need to add a small backing plate or smooth a patch where the gnomon mounts.

Privacy & data

What data do you keep about my purchase? The minimum needed to fulfil and account for the order — your name, email, shipping address, what you bought, the price, and the Stripe payment reference. Order records are kept for 10 years to comply with Bulgarian tax law. See the Privacy Policy for the full picture.

Do you send marketing emails? No. We don't run a marketing list. The only emails you'll get from us are the order confirmation, shipping notifications, and (if you write to us) our reply.

Can I delete my data? You can ask us to delete email correspondence at any time. Order records we have to keep for the tax-retention period (10 years). See the Privacy Policy.

Still stuck?

Write to orders@nortiasundials.com — a real person reads every message. We're a small studio in Bulgaria, not a call centre.

Effective 22 May 2026.