Just DO it

3.21.09

Teaching vs. Creating

It's hard to be a teacher. Most of the time I just make things without thinking. If I stop to analyze how I attach one bead to another, or how I make a design come together, I am stopped in my tracks. Just do it. 

Easier said than done? 

My best advice  is to build your best vocabulary, learn the basics... first the alphabet then the words, first the notes, then the scales... every technique, until you find the ones you like best, the ones that click. Then, like the commercial says, just DO it.

Inspiration not imitation, illustrated

9.16.08

An example of inspiration, not imitation.

Here's a netted collar by Adrienne Gaskell, which will be published in the Nov. Dec. issue of Step by Step Beads. I was inspired by the palette and technique, and created 2 bracelets. Does anyone think these look like I copied her design?

Imitation or Inspiration

Inspiration or Imitation, and why I care.

9.13.08
The battle rages, and among beaders, no less. Is it kosher to copy someone's design if they see it as a tutorial project someplace, and recreate that project, then sell it? I'm not talking about the whole "Who invented peyote?", which everyone knows is not the point. I am talking about using someone else's exact design and making a profit from it, without permission from the original creator. Sometimes there is a very distinct line between inspiration and imitation, as in my case.

This is my original O-ring design, first sold online in my own site, then published in Step by Step Beads and referenced on Beading Daily. I sell many versions of this, and people recognize it as one of my signature designs, especially the use of the rubber ring and rubber cord, and the prominent inclusion of the thread as part of the design.

These other pendants were found online, on the same art-for-sale Web site where I sell my work. Let me ask, inspiration or imitation? Should I care? They were underselling me, too.
My blog, my rant. One artist was nice enough in their reply to my request to stop selling my design, the other didn't at all understand why I was angry and was actually quite spiteful.

Go figure. You'd think we beaders would look out for each other in a world where overseas producers are ripping off artists left and right!

Still beading

As if a anyone was still even checking my posts. I am still beading, just too busy to post anything. How do you find time/make time to bead??

O-ring O-riginal

Thank you everyone! I am thrilled at the response to my O-ring design.

Complete instructions for this project will appear
in the March April 08 issue of STEP BY STEP BEADS.
Look for it in bead, book and craft stores mid February!

Who's going to the Tucson Bead Shows 08?

I'll be trying to do a daily blog from Tucson , the first two weeks in February. The shows include beads, tools, findings..fossils, gems, treasures from all over the world... with almost one hundred hotels, tents, halls, gyms and gypsy camps plus a couple resorts and a mansion full of gem, jewelry, mineral and fossil shows...talk about a rush!

Big beads in Tucson!

Beading Daily

Are you Beading Daily? I am beading nightly, but it's the same thing. Whatever the time, I am one of you who must bead, need to bead, on a regular basis. Beadingdaily.com is a portal to a fix, a cure, a moment of zen, a treat, an indulgence, a distraction..from the stress and foibles that plague us. It's a cool place to go to be with those of a like mind!

One thing I don't let plague me is the mess on my table. Case in point. Here's what's on my table as of this morning.




The paw has a puss attached. Meet Tai.