Having read through the posting about the fair at the weekend, I have realised I didn’t tell new readers where to find the information about how I make porcelain dolls. I don’t want to bore the pants off any regular readers (and if you are a regular reader – hello! Thank you! It’s me, yoohoo!) but new readers visit this site in extraordinary numbers. I don’t go in for all the thrilling demographics about the way the world wide web is connecting the people on the planet, though it is wonderful and must, eventually make war obsolete. Once we all know each other there’ll be no one left to fight with, except, of course, the traditional family fight at feast days, weddings and funerals (what she said about her mother, what his uncle did with the money and who knew about that cousin and the dancers – though everyone thought there was something not quite right, if you know what I mean.).
All that is interesting but the only demographics I actually study are those pertaining to this website. I know where in the world you are reading this and by which search engine you found me, how long you read and how many pages and so on. Whilst I don’t know your name I’m familiar with one of your habits, which is the one where you sit down to read JaneLaverick.com (thank you, otherwise, you know, there would be no point.) I was aware that a website starting up at first is only likely to gather readers in the tens and possibly hundreds. I was not aware that I would reach beyond hundreds and stay there and build, though I could have guessed by the pingbacks. There is a mechanism on the site by which people, who can be traders, can post a comment and include their email or web address in the hope I’ll publish it and thus they can get buyers by piggybacking on my demographics. I assume by the surge in people trying to do this, currently hundreds a day, that I must have passed some significant number of reader figures to make this type of publicity theft worthwhile. I don’t, of course, publish such comments but I do with genuine reader comments and I do reply to genuine enquiries and have made several lovely friends all over the world this way.
The information about how I make porcelain dolls is to be found in the right hand column on the shop pages. To go there simply click on the words ’click here to go shopping’ under view the shop, which is under the picture of the large doll looking into the little shop. This takes you through to the shop. Looking down the right hand column on that screen you will find the doll glossary, clicking on any topic there will bring up the page for you to read. Using either the arrow back button on your computer screen or scrolling down and clicking on ‘back to the catalogue’ on that page of the doll glossary will take you back to the shop page.
On a shop page clicking on View details/Place order does not instantly commit you to buying a doll at all. It takes you through to the next screen with a bigger picture of the doll and some information about it. On the picture of the doll there are buttons in the bottom right hand side which will enable you, when clicked on, to zoom in and see the details of even the smallest dolls better than you can with a magnifying glass. If you would like to buy, click ‘add to basket’ to begin the buying process. This takes you through several screens for your security. Payment is by PayPal, which you do not have to have an account with to use. You use your plastic card, as usual, your plastic card provider will charge you as usual and I pay for the use of PayPal. When you have made an order I receive a message telling me so and the address to send it to. I do not have any details of your plastic card, bank or any financial information, just that you have paid. Dolls are then sent, recorded and securely packed anywhere in the world. As I have not increased the postage for some time, this is currently a good deal.
As soon as you have bought it, the item you have bought disappears from the shop. Everything in the shop is a one-off, so when you’ve bought it, no one else can do so. As a result, sometimes there are empty pages in the shop until I restock the shelves, so to speak. This is a laborious process. Each photograph I take has to go through a 20 step process on the computer to get it in the shop and zoomable. As there’s only me to do it and I’m not very good at it, it takes a while.
I will try to get some 48th scale things in the shop. Currently the difficulty of living in two towns at once, as I care for my elderly mother, means that what I’m doing mostly is things beginning with C. Cleaning, Cooking, Caring, Clearing (fridges, drawers, garages), Coping (barely) and (domesti) Caccounting. It’s enough to make you Crazy, though as I was barely sane to start with it’s not that noticeable.
Meanwhile on this page, the front page (Hold the front Page) (well you can’t, it’s a computer. I suppose you can pick it up and hold it if it’s a laptop, but only try if it’s a light one and not if there’s a cup of anything hot and wet nearby – quick round of the old song ‘You should not wash a computer, they do not like it at all.’), there are articles. On the right hand column of this page, with a bit of clicking, you can find everything I’ve written here for the last three years. The site was originally designed with miniaturists in mind, who are, mainly, ladies and there is nothing written here that would make your granny blush. Some of the content is enjoyed by younger readers, though not designed for them. The dolls and porcelain artefacts are designed for adult collectors and do not conform to any standards for toys as they are not toys, though my artistic style is deliberately naive because antique dolls houses with little dolls living little doll lives inside of them was my first falling in love with the hobby and remains so. I am not a realism enthusiast, I think there’s far too much realism in reality. I like to get far away from reality and have a bit of fun. I like a five minute bit of cheerful reading to get me through the day and a little doll, always smiling, collectable and lasting, very reliable and not letting you down or doing anything unpredictable, unlike some people.
If you like that sort of thing too, welcome! This is JaneLaverick.com written by me. Jane Laverick is my real name, really, I was christened Jane after my adopted grandmother and I married A. Laverick, who is the same A. Laverick who found a way to diagnose Legionnaires disease back in the 1970s (you can Google him), so I’m Mrs Laverick to the postman (but only if the parcels aren’t too heavy.)
So welcome new readers, it’s quite all right to click away on this site, you cannot break anything, get lost or buy something by mistake. I write this to make you happy and I hope it does.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JaneLaverick.com – a place to practise being happy.