I was approached at Miniatura by Amanda, who had rehomed one of the fairies a few years ago. Looking into her dolls’ house Amanda was alarmed to find that her fairy had a floppy head and brought the fairy back to me to see what I could do and assure me that she hadn’t been nasty to the fairy at all. I didn’t for a moment think she had and thanked her for bringing the doll back.
Examination at home convinced me of what I had surmised at the show, that the elastic had perished. I also looked at the fairies in the shop and found that I had strung one of them with the same elastic; the poor fairy was looking decidedly odd.
As you can see it looks as if a sudden broken leg has developed. I removed the elastic from both fairies and took them to bits,
here is Amanda’s fairy, thoroughly disassembled. The awful pink elastic, which perished all on its own, is to be seen in a curl below the doll’s hair. The new strong white elastic is above the hair.
I have searched out the remnants of the reel of pink elastic and hurled it into the bin; I get quite annoyed about components that are not good enough, when the porcelain and the methods of manufacture are so durable. So far in 18 years of doll making, I have only found this one reel of elastic and a reel of wire that were not up to standard but Amanda did exactly the right thing in telling me about the problem and returning the doll. In 18 years of doing anything suppliers change and it isn’t always possible to get exactly the same things. I am still concerned about the supplies of porcelain slip. The manufacturers of the one I use retired; sourcing slip for doll making is a problem all over Europe and North America, though I do have a stockpile.
Happily I was already using a much better quality elastic and was soon able to restring the dolls. While she was here Amanda’s fairy had a good clean, her hair and her legs grew and she found a little friend to go home with.
I really do mean it when I say these dolls are heirlooms. Of the many hundreds of dolls I’ve made only three have ever come back for repair. I am always pleased to see them and mend them and make sure they go back as good as new, that’s one of the advantages of porcelain. Please do let me know if a doll I have made for you is not well; I will always do my best to kiss it better. I wish people lasted as long with nothing bad happening to them. But if something does go wrong what you need then is exactly the same; it’s a friend to make you feel better.
Wednesday 12th October on QVC the shopping channel from 7pm is the time QVC supports the Breast Cancer Care charity, which is all about being a friend to people who have fallen to bits. If you visit the site here www.qvcuk.com and click on ‘Alison’s story’ on the banner headline you can watch the speech given by brave, beautiful presenter Alison Keenan, who found she had this horrible disease. You can support the charity by buying products from the shopping channel on Wednesday night during a special three hour event, starting at 7. I never miss this inspiring event, you can watch it live online.
Meanwhile I must fly and get the fairies ready to post because they don’t! Now where did I put the tissue paper?
JaneLaverick.com – caring.