A warm hello to the readers of Doll Advertiser magazine, which is due to hit the shelves any minute now. Official date is the first, though many WHSmiths already have it. British doll magazines are thin on the ground; those that are left need to be treasured and enjoyed. I know enthusiasts do just that and if you are one and have found me by that route, welcome to you, this post will briefly explain this site and what you can find here.
JaneLaverick.com was launched to coincide with Miniatura, the dolls’ house and miniature art show held at the Birmingham NEC in the autumn of 2009. The Spring show will be held on the week end of 27th and 28th March 2010. The brevity of this posting* is largely due to the fact that I exhibit at and report the show. The site was designed by my son who has done all the clever technical stuff, there is an entire doll shop with secure online ordering, accessed by clicking on the shop button to the right of this column. Scrolling down from the doll shop will give you access to all the previous postings because JaneLaverick.com is 50% dolls and 99% writing just like me. I know that’s a lot of percents; I like to keep busy.
In the shop screens, in the same location on the right hand column you will find all the permanent content. Reading this will inform you that the shop stock is original artist porcelain dolls, entirely designed and handmade by me. I have been making porcelain dolls for 17 years and I’m beginning to get quite good at it. The only place you can buy the things I make is here, or at Miniatura exhibitions and shows. In the shop as well as porcelain dolls of various sizes, you will also find original miniature oil paintings, about postage stamp size and various doll’s house artefacts. Each item in the shop is a one-off, made one at a time, I do not mass produce. Once you have bought your choice through secure PayPal, it disappears from the shop and though there may be another similar, as I do make the dolls from my own moulds, the way it’s dressed and china painted and the glass eyes make it an original work of art of which you will have the only one. In the permanent content beside the shop you will find information about exactly how I make the dolls. Whilst my work is copyright, there are no secret manufacturing processes, I am openly descriptive of the making.
I can be so, as I know much of what I make is the result of 17 years spent acquiring skills. I have interviewed artists and dollmakers for 15 years for magazines and as far as I am aware I’m the only person in the country, for example, making a 14 piece porcelain jointed glass eyed original artist 2 1/2 inch doll with brushable hair and removable clothes. And they look good too. I wasn’t born that way; I spent at least six years making things that looked like squashed bugs.
In the picture of each item for sale in the shop you will find some buttons in the corner, clicking on these will zoom the picture for you, so that you can see the things better than if you had them in your hand and were looking at them with a magnifying glass. Clicking on the picture of the little house will take them home to their original size. It is not possible to buy items in the shop accidentally. If you do put something in your shopping basket there are several screens to go through with information to be filled in before you have bought the item, the final screen asks if you are happy to accept the terms and conditions relating to the fact that these are dolls for collectors and not children’s toys. If you never see this screen, you have not bought anything. So please feel free to play with my dolls as long and often as you wish. More dolls will go up there when I’ve made, photographed and zoomed them.
The other 99% of the site is writing, mostly humorous. I have been writing ever since they put a pencil in my five year old hand, in the last fifteen years for assorted hobby magazines. However, I felt like an iceberg in magazine writing, there was always a mountain underwater that I couldn’t get out into the air and I knew if I could, you’d want to slide down it on a tea tray. Finally JaneLaverick.com has given me the facility to do what I do best, which is to be very silly in a quite literary fashion. I post at least three times a week but more often, more often. Jane Laverick.com is regularly read (regularly meaning at least three times a week) in over 25 countries and 14 languages and the readership is growing organically every month.
The categories in the right hand column give access to all previous writing. The Parrot has Landed is the silly stuff, Nostalgia tends to be inspirational, Dolls is about dolls and so on. If older entries do not appear in their categories automatically, clicking on the monthly categories will access them. There is a vast raft of stuff in ‘Uncategorised’ simply because some fool writer forget to set the categories before posting. Study of the demographics made it plain at an early stage that many people choose to read JaneLaverick.com on Monday morning and Friday afternoon, so I try to have something hilarious to speed you through the working week up here at those times.
The left hand column is blank, perhaps in time there will be advertising here, if you wish to advertise please get in touch.
The entries are stored going backwards in time, if, reading part of a continuing topic, you haven’t a clue what I’m on about, scrolling down to the first entry on that topic will enlighten you. For example, Knickerbocker Glory entries are extracts from a radio series that I wrote about a decade ago that came home with its tail between its legs after gathering dust in a BBC corridor for some time but you won’t know that unless you’ve been reading for a while or have scrolled down to the first entries.
The web manager has enabled the site for Digg, Twitter, Facebook, hand held devices and so on, so that you can share things you find funny with your friends. This facility was in response to an email request. We’d love to hear what you have to say. The content of JaneLaverick.com whilst intended for adult readers will never be anything that would bring you out in a hot sweat if you found you’d accidentally sent it to your granny. I think it’s possible to be funny without being rude or upsetting ordinary people, though targets such as leech-like politicians and vacuous celebs may find themselves sent right up.
In the same area you will see that you can receive alerts for postings. Whilst I aim to post at least three times a week, usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I have been known to wake in the night feeling funny, or bounce out of bed on a Thursday, looking hilarious.
A large portion of content is about artisans working in miniature. I am as disgusted with the way salesmen try to con the public with so called ‘art’ in full size, as I am relieved that real art and craftsmanship still exists in miniature to brighten the lives of normal non millionaires. I am furthermore delighted that this phenomenon is well spread round the globe. Miniatura classifies itself as Miniatura International for good reasons. Artists and collectors make their way to Birmingham from all over the world. Here you will not find pickled sheep, performance art, cliff wrapping, collections of worn underwear or any other evidence of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Collectors save up their hard earned pocket money and want to spend it on nice things properly made by hand by skilled craftsmen. The good news is that art is alive and well, it just shrunk a bit so we can fit it in our apartments and houses.
This site is growing organically in response to requests. I have plans for artisan interviews to act as an information resource, similarly to help doll dressing collectors, there will be clothing patterns and ‘how to’ articles. If you have requested any of these, your patience is appreciated. There’s only one writer, everything you read here is thought of and written down by me. There is no second hand stuff from anywhere else on the web. Featured artisans have provided photographs of their own work, all other photos are mine. When I started writing for magazines, fifteen years ago, at once show visitors made time to come and tell me how much they have enjoyed the articles and how often they re-read favourites, especially the silly ones. They still do so today, sometimes people remember jokes for years and tell them back to me. Many readers have told me that a funny bit of writing helped them through difficult times. I do the same thing, ’flu or finances can send me scurrying for favourite books to lighten my day and send me out into the world cheerful again. If JaneLaverick.com becomes that for you, it is my complete pleasure, there will always be something new, something interesting and something really fairly silly, so welcome, new reader. You really are very welcome.
* Sopt the deligerate mistale! This posting has been singularly lacking in any form of brevity whatsoever. I thought it was going to be briefish when I began this morning but that was before the whole half glass of wine I tend to have on Sunday. Sometimes it can be as bad as poetry; just be glad you can’t hear me singing.