Warning, Rant Ahead

Ah, Friday...sometimes I wish that you actually meant the week was over, but it's just an illusion for me of course. Non stop is the life of the stay at home mom. No, I'm not really complaining. I do in fact love my life...most days, I just wish the weekend was more like it was when I was a kid, but I digress.

Yesterday, I did much cleaning, but the kind you can't see all that well. You know, bathrooms, dusting blinds and the like. Then I finished up the barefoot sandals and with no preplanned project to attend to, I stopped tatting for the day. I did put up a giveaway for a pair of tatted bobby pins on my facebook page that won't end until this afternoon if you wanted to participate.

Then I decided to go looking at tatting around Art Fire and Etsy. I used to do this all the time, especially around the time I had that awful copycat that put up several pieces using my designs, copied my descriptions, shop policies and photograph style...it was unpleasant. Since then, I only nose around every once in a while. This time I ran across another copy of my work. Now, I know you initially wonder if it's one of the pieces I used a vintage or antique pattern for, but those are fair game for anyone nor was it one where I provided a pattern online. No, this was my lace maille necklace design. Sure, the motif is simple, but they added crystals in the same places, strung them with jump rings into the same configuration. This, my friends is blatant copying. Luckily a short convo to the seller resulted in a quick removal of the piece and an apology. The apology contained one sentence though, that gave me pause and I wanted to talk about that here.

"I didn't realize it was your design, as I have seen others on Etsy just like it". This was followed by, "There are just so many things on etsy that look alike."

As to the first comment, No, there aren't...I looked. That design is only used by me and there is nothing remotely like it there that wasn't made by me. It is however the spirit of the comments that is the most disconcerting. Basically they admit they copied the design from a photo, whether they knew it was mine or not is irrelevant, they knew it wasn't theirs, that belonged to someone else and that didn't seem to matter to them. They then took the great amount of time that it takes to make that piece and didn't think at any point during its construction that they were doing anything wrong. Now, I'm all for copying other peoples work in an effort to learn and grow and become a better tatter and designer, but not to sell.

Their second comment seems so much like saying,' hey, look I'm not the only one'. Don't make excuses, you messed up, you were caught, learn from it and move on. I had to learn nearly the same lesson at one point, so I don't harbor any ill will here. I did send a reply with a friendly reminder about the dangers of copyright infringement, not as a threat, but I really am trying to be helpful. I guess I just feel it's best for me to share these sort of things so that more people can avoid ever being in the situation in the first place. There are much meaner people than me regarding design protection and if you copy them...well, you won't get off so easily.

Well, that was a longer rant than I had intended and I know that I've sang this same song on a few other occasions so thank you for your patience. I don't have any tatting projects queued up right now, so I might find some time to play over the weekend and just see what I can birth. I also have our end of the summer/birthday get together this weekend which should keep me busy what with the preparing and then the cleaning up after, so I might not get anything interesting done at all. So I'll just see you on the other side then.

Just The One Thing

Let's see now...I did get the mask I was working on done so it will be in the mail this morning. I started on the barefoot sandals that I needed to make, but then I made the decision to go outside and clean up the yard. This was a choice I almost immediately regretted as the heat seemed to sap every bit of energy out of my body. When I finally came back inside after the weed pulling and picking up random strewn items I literally fell into the couch and stayed there for a good thirty minutes. To make matters worse I was also doing laundry at the same time which I had at this point nearly forgotten about.

After lunch rather than get back to the barefoot sandals, I made up the forth charm necklace and got pictures of it, as well as a couple of pendants that needed renewing in the shop. They had some of my very laziest photos on their listings and if I was going to keep them in the shop I figured a makeover was due. It's just a another subtle reminder of all the lessons I have learned over the last five years hawking my wares. Of course I mostly made this necklace so I would have something... anything to talk about and show today.

After those were done it was back to the barefoot sandals and some errands. Not to be repetitive, but today is also back to the barefoot sandals, but instead of errands I have set aside some rooms that need cleaning. So again, I don't have much faith in tomorrow's post being interesting nor entertaining either. I think I'm just dragging here at the end of summer, or it could be that my birthday is fast approaching and I'm moving up a demographic age group. I know that's a weird thing to be concerned about. I guess at least I'll be at the bottom end of the demographic instead of the top or I could just ignore it as it's probably just one of many different accepted demographic ranges that at the end of the day is just an arbitrary cutoff point lacking any real meaning. Yeah, but I'll have to check the other box. Anyway, that's it for me today. I'm off to it.

Eyes

It's gonna be one of 'those' posts. Yep, nothing good to share at all. I worked on the ordered mask and I didn't even finish it because we had a family eye doctor appointment in the afternoon and a comic book meeting in the evening. I should have brought the tatting to the meeting, but, well...I didn't.  I did manage to get the last three superhero cuffs listed in the morning though. That will be the last of them until I order up some more thread. In particular I need a gold color to do a few more specific ones that the husband has been hounding my about. Once that last batch has been completed I think I'll probably be done with color for the foreseeable future.

If you were curious about the eye appointment, I've been blind as all get out since I was five years old. I wear contacts and I've managed to let the one pair of glasses I own last over a decade. They are not only less than useful, but currently broken and wired together with jewelry wire. So I have new contacts and glasses coming...they have skulls on them. We also had the youngest get her first exam and the other child learned that she will likely need glasses in the next year or two. I'm glad the doctor gave us some time before we needed to worry about them though. It gives me a nice timeline to work on the child and get her used to the idea. I had a feeling with both our bad eyes there was little chance for the kids to escape with perfect vision, though the youngest does seem fine for the time being.

Anyway, today, it's back to the mask and I sold a pair of barefoot sandals that will need remaking. I'm not even going to assume there is a remote possibility that I get both those tasks done today. Schooling is taking much longer with us doing some online assessments that are apparently kicking my daughter's arse. We are back to those today as she keeps stopping all frustrated and they must get finished. So there you have it, nothing interesting to look at, nor read. I hope that today brings something worth sharing tomorrow.

Heroes and Villains

Well, it was another boring, but on task day. I've opted to ramp up the child's schooling to full days even though I technically have another week until school officially begins. This keeps me much busier in the morning away from tatting, but having the extra work done gives us an invaluable cushion should anything arise over the year that takes us away from schooling or if she hits a tough spot with anything.

I did get three more superhero inspired colorways worked up though. The first batch of them also got listed. It was quite odd to take pictures for four pieces at the same time, but it certainly resulted in consistent images for them. The new pieces reside in a new 'Heroes and Villains' section in the shop. This new batch will get listed later this morning as well. I know they deviate a lot from my usual style, but I really am enjoying all the color I rarely work with. Don't worry, this doesn't mean that I have any intention of abandoning black. This is merely a sideshow and once I have finished all the characters that are currently running about in my head I will let go of the brightly hued combinations. Oh, if you were wondering these ones represent X-Men, Fantastic Four and The Joker.

I finally had someone return to purchase something they had requested, so today belongs to making a mask. I'm fairly certain that will be the whole of the day, but if I get some extra time, I think I'll make up that charm necklace I said I was going to make yesterday. I also have a ton of cleaning to do in anticipation of a get together we're hosting this weekend. I'm trying to clean a little at a time so it doesn't get overwhelming, but the children are determined to undo such small progress in record time. Oh well, it'll get done one way or another even if that other way is a mas cleaning marathon on Friday, which it will most likely be.

Interwoven Insanity

I am so the biggest liar ever. Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but that motif which I soundly put to bed as useless Friday morning...well, it wasn't. Apparently I just need to sleep on it because when I laid eyes on the piece later that morning not only did the solution appear, but it avalanched into a weekend long love affair. After the black version came alive, I decided that the three separate motifs would be best served by color variations. The first here is two shades of purple, a Lizbeth and a flora and black. Since the motifs themselves are so simple they work up quick until the finishing bits, but even those are just a little fiddly.

On Saturday I went to my old standby, the sepia tones. Yes, fancy browns. These ones are all Lizbeth...I had just gotten a new thread order in the mail in the morning. I was quite enjoying the graduated tones when I asked facebook what other color combinations they would like. One response was, 'bright colors'. You know I'm not usually drawn to the bright ones and when I am, outside the confines of a custom order, they rarely sell, but I was having a good time making so I went with it.

I chose primary colors and when I was about halfway through I couldn't help but think of Superman...or Wonder Woman. You might not be aware of this, but I am a bit of a comic book geek married to a way bigger comic book geek, so the idea of superheroes and villains represented in colored lace, well it grabbed hold quick. Soon, I had a second one done in honor of Batman and then I mentioned my project to the husband...he approved. Then he began relentlessly providing color combinations for a long list of characters and start lamenting my lack of speed to complete them all.

None of the new ones have been properly photographed nor listed as I just put down one and started another. Feel free to guess who they represent, but if you stop by my facebook page, the guessing has already been done and was quite an amusing romp for me. Yes, there are more waiting to be made and put into a  new 'Heroes and Villains' section in the shop. I'm currently having another run of custom inquiries that lead nowhere so I suppose I'll keep on these for a spell. There's also just one last key to put onto a charm necklace too, so I might get that done today as well.

I shall leave you today when a bit of wisdom I had to remember the hard way last night. If the other person drinking a strong bottle of wine with you over dinner doesn't like the wine...don't take upon yourself to finish the bottle after eating only a couple of slices of pizza. Sure, I'm fine this morning and the kids thought I was funny, but it really was not my best idea. I just thought I'd put that out as a 'see how awesomely stupid I can be' moment to start your week with a bit of a laugh. Did it work?