What does this look like to you?
Yes it is a box.
I wonder what is inside it?
Another box. Some numbers and some things.
Not necessarily helpful.
What is left inside the big box?
More things in bigger compartments.
So what is it? Any guesses?
It is the shop, which not only exists online, it exists in reality.
And it’s open!
Sorry, that was a bit informal, I’ll try again.
I declare this shop open, God bless all those who shop in her.
That’s it really.
It takes 25 different actions on my computer to put the photographed, printed pictures of the stock and the descriptions and measurements (which all took a week) on the shelves, as it were.
Fortunately, for you, the shopper, if you wish to be, it is very simple to have a look and to shop.
To begin, click on ‘shop’ in the bar above under the picture in the header.
Lots of little pictures of the stock will appear. Clicking on a picture will bring up plentiful information and you can easily add things to your basket by clicking appropriately.
But nothing is set in stone, you can just as easily remove things from your basket with a click and then a message will tell you your basket is empty. Clicking on ‘home’ in the bar under the header will bring you back here.
If you wish to purchase an item from the shop just click till the till. All you need is a plastic bank card. No one has bought anything yet, so I am hoping the S&H has instructed his mother correctly. If he has, when you complete a purchase I will receive a message in my inbox telling me which purchase you have purchased and who you are and where to post the purchase to.
I will find the item in the shop (which is in the big box) (or, the little box which is in the big box). I will put it in one of the boxes I have made and wrap that and put it in a postal box. I will go to the post office with it and send it tracked to you and email you the tracking information so you can watch it arriving.
It really is fairly simple. I hope.
One thing to note is that there is a flat rate contribution to postage of a fiver. If you buy one thing the postage cost to you will be a fiver. If you buy ten things the postage cost to you will be a fiver. Depending on how things go I may photograph and upload more ornaments. They are proper porcelain heirlooms, some cost about a fiver, so if you add one of those to your basket it almost makes your postage free compared to the cost of just one item.
I will also try when I have recovered from building a shop, to put more 24th scale articulated dolls in the shop because I believe there are very few doll artists making original artist articulated 24th scale porcelain dolls. If you are doing a particular era or project, please email me, I can try to dress some of the type you’d like. It will not be fast but could happen eventually.
The thing to notice about this shop is that it’s you and it’s me and you already know if you click on ‘leave a comment’ below, your message will come to my inbox. If there is something that you know that I make, either from reading about it here, or seeing it when you visited Miniatura, that you would like me to put in the shop, I’ll have a go. I will not put hundreds of items in the shop because I do need to leave plenty of stock for Miniatura.
At present there are 32 items in the shop; it’s not exactly Woolworths. However, everything there is hand-made in porcelain by me. Each item is individually hand-made, photographed and put on the shelves. This means there is only one in the shop, but it does not mean there is only one in existence. If some other shopper got in there and bought the one you’d been fancying, email me, I might have another. I have done items individually because they are individual. I could not china paint or dress two identical dolls if my life depended on it. Porcelain is a multi stage process in the making, individuality creeps in everywhere. So whilst the description of a restocked item might be the same, the photograph will be of the restocked item and not the previous, bought by someone else, one.
I think that’s about it. You cannot destroy anything by clicking around. You can change your mind. If you do it would be lovely of you to empty your basket fairly promptly. You can put the item back in your basket if you change your mind again. If someone else has put the item in their basket and gone though to checkout, email me in the comments section below, I’ll see if I’ve got another.
I have some of the surprise boxes left from Miniatura. They contain a plate and some birthday cake. There is a strong possibility you will get one of those in your parcel utterly free. They will run out eventually but not for quite a while. I will have absolutely no idea which cake and which plate is in your box, it is over a year since I packed them. I will let the scale be the same as your purchase, round about.
That’s all. I declare the shop open. Let there be cake!
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