Now on the flip side, I am waiting for an email to get permission from someone to use her name. She asked permission to teach one of my techniques to her bead society class. If I don’t get permission, I will write an article without her name

I have a rather ‘reverse’ story to share. I was trying to create ’seaweed’ or ‘knot’ type jewelry for a gallery show that I was asked to participate in and started coming up w/what I thought was some pretty cool little knots and ’seaweed bundles’ (the theme was a sea/water type theme).

I proudly made them and we had our gallery showing and I got lots of compliments. A month later, I was at a book store and was leafing through a jewelry book I was about to purchase (by Kathy Frey) and there, amidst her pages was my (what I thought was mine) little seaweed/knot design – well, very similar anyway. Her technique was much more organized than mine! LOL!!

I realized that she had obviously come up with this little weave/knot thing LONG BEFORE I HAD because her book was published and for sale, and we all know how long those things are in the works before they actually happen. I felt awful! Did I perhaps see this in a magazine, another book, online, where? And, had my ’sub-conscious’ just picked up on it or what? I pulled my pieces out of the gallery that had that design and took the ones I had for sale on my website off as I didn’t want to be accused of ‘copying’ any ones original designs.

I then proceeded to search online for designs using this knot type technique and I found tons,….and tons,…by several people. So, was everyone copying her design or just creating something similar and putting their own ’spin’ on it? Or, was this some universal design thing (like an earring wire/hook) that is used extensively through out the wire wrapping industry that I was just clueless about? I never found the answer to that questions when I searched either.

Since then, I have also seen a ‘hap-hazard’ type wire wrapping on several websites that I use on a few of my “Urban Chaos” pieces – but I try not to put too many of my designs w/that technique out there, as I am not sure it’s just something we all just stumbled upon while creating and thinking up fresh ways to do things or is it someone’s copywritten work?

I believe that if you know who really did come up w/the original idea of how to wrap a piece of wire, you should give credit where credit is due, but if you cannot find out, after researching it, or are pretty certain it’s a ‘world wide technique’ that’s been used for years then you should mention that if you can.

I have an earwire design that I have yet to see elsewhere – web, store, book or anywhere – but I’m not sure I can copyright it because it’s an ear wire and those are basically universal since they’ve been around since we’ve been putting holes in our ears, and I don’t want to chance it and find out the design I thought I came up with was done 20 years ago or longer by someone else.

It’s like coiling wire around another wire and then wrapping that around a bead – is that some one else’s technique that is a copyright technique that I shouldn’t be using? It’s so widely used in all wire-wrapped designs that I have no idea, but for some reason, I don’t fee bad using that technique because it just seems like a natural way to wrap things. Should we all be giving credit to whomever first did this? I can’t find who did this, but would definitely state it, especially in the classes I teach that have this wire coiled around another wire technique.

It truly seems like a very fine line in handcrafted jewelry that’s getting really hard to understand and to abide by and one I think of constantly when I create. I try to come up w/totally unique ideas or very universal things that are just ’standard’ so as not to take anyone’s original design or technique away from them.

However, on another note – the lady’s who walked around your booth and others w/sketch pad in hand….why not just announce your going to “rob the bank” prior to the robbery!! Now that’s just not polite, professional or ethical in my book! Shame on them and good for you for doing all you could to protect your weaving technique!

The complaint in this post is when another artisan copies a design and does not give the original designer credit but rather takes the credit of design for her/himself.

I am currently writing a book. One of my designs in the book stems from another artisans bracelet. She is a friend of mine. I emailed her a picture of my bracelet. She emailed me back and said she loved the bracelet. I then emailed her back and told her I got the idea from a bracelet of hers. She saw the correlation between the two bracelets but she also recognized that my design implemented a different technique and it looks much different than her design. I asked her for permission to use my idea in my book while giving credit to her in the book, that her bracelet inspired me to design my bracelet. The book comes out in November 2010……

I somehow feel like a criminal reading all your comments.

The trick in designing is to observe, get inspired by and emulate designs that you like, but NEVER copy. Make transcriptions, use similar colour schemes or materials, but always put your own stamp on the design – they come out much better that way anyway!

Among the ‘jewellery community’ Everyone is in the same boat when it comes to designing and making, and it’s quite sad that some people don’t realise that fact and exploit people’s ideas and good nature by copying. I’m sure THEY wouldn’t like it if their ideas and insights were simply taken from them without permission.

Person A and B seem manipulative and just downright lazy, thinking that stealing is better and easier than doing the hard work themselves. Their comeuppance will come in time; you can’t live forever on the ideas of others.

It’s a real shame that honesty and trust are sometimes punished rather than rewarded. Your approach of ‘live and learn’ is the only way in this case I think – just take more care over what information you give out for free, and who you give information to. Be economical with the truth: keep some answers to “yes” or “no”, instead of specific “how’s, when’s, where’s and why’s” until you know more about who’s asking. If they are genuine, they’ll still pursue the answer with vigour, if not they’ll give up because they are too lazy.

After all, with caution, trust and honesty Will be rewarded in the end, and you’ll find business partners to collaborate with rather than be wary of.

Maybe do the kit idea yourself – acquire beads and components and write the tutorial, all without the help of someone else. It’ll be far more rewarding to do it yourself, and you’ll know that no stealing was involved!

You know, this afternoon I was thinking about this on all levels – how do professional musicians feel when their music is bootlegged and copied….seems like this pales in comparison or does it? It is the same principle where someone steals from another. I guess the best thing is that we are aware of it and do out best to protect ourselves, like posting articles about it and posting our pictures!

Has anyone ever copied your beads?

And, yes, I have heard of this happening to others as well.