I’m sorry for the lack of postings. Family stuff is proving very time consuming, my mother is now so ill and likely to be horrible on the phone that almost every exchange needs to be recovered from so I’m doing a lot of meditating and a lot of working out. We have embarked in earnest on clearing out the bedroom of the S&H so he and his bride can actually sleep in there without having to be stacked up on a heap of junk like everything else in the room. I have found the carpet and an old friend who does storage but I have not thrown anything away without the say so of the owner, so it’s all taking a long time.
I cannot settle to work but with only that many weeks to Christmas and three to the new show I should. There will not be anything new in the shop here before Christmas unless things change drastically soon enough to get them photographed, processed and up there in time. There is a ton of new stuff to go in the shop, I just don’t have the time to put it there.
I had a request recently asking if I will send stuff to other countries. I will, I do and I have done so. The furthest a doll has been is Australia, which is as far as you can go before you’re coming back again. If the country of destination is war torn or has dodgy postal services I’ll try. I have also had an enquiry as to which plastic bank cards I accept. Payment here is through PayPal who accept most major cards. If you are a member of the bank of ToyTown or some such and found your bit of plastic wasn’t working with that system I still accept personal cheques from a recognised bank as long as they are written in GBP and drawn on a British bank. In similar currency International Money Orders and Post Office Moneygrams are also acceptable.
The new show is going to be interesting. It is at Cranmore Park exhibition centre on the 16th November. This is a one day only show, just a little bigger than a third of an NEC Miniatura. Entrance is less than a fiver and the parking is free. So, if you turn up early you should be able to see the lot and get home in time for tea. The exhibitor list including that there Laverick Jane is up on the Miniatura website and you can buy the tickets now if you want to. I am shortly going to have an experimental drive there, so I’ll tell you more about the venue when I’ve been. Basically it’s just us lot again a bit further west. Full details as always at www.miniatura.co.uk
I hardly need to tell you I love the show with a passion. I have just finished making my first Miniatura mini scrapbook album and I’m planning on beginning on the second soon. It’s just for me and it’s all the stories I couldn’t put in a magazine and some actual artefacts from makers. One day it will all be history so the time to record it is now and the time to go and enjoy it is now. Because of Tinternet shopping and the rise and rise of television shopping channels and the vast savings they can make by economy of scale, there is a possibility that the days of handmade bespoke articles in all scales, including reality, are numbered. More young people are used to being creative with machines; people are being brought up wanting instant gratification and things done for them at the touch of a button. I am utterly in favour of there being equality throughout the world but this next evolution of mankind will hopefully leave no third world countries with cheap labour to make things by hand for everyone else. There are not many new young miniaturists about either. It takes a long time to learn traditional skills. I’ve been doing porcelain for nearly twenty three years and I’m just beginning to get good at it. In their various disciplines you can say much the same for many of the exhibitors that will be at Cranmore Park, they are very definitely a practised lot and I’m looking forward to seeing them as much as you are. I may even photograph one or two for my album and I will certainly collect a little something because I still like getting home, unpacking, sitting down with a cup of tea and going through the little paper bags. Ooh lovely, three weeks to wait.
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JaneLaverick.com – forward thinking.