[Moth]

20 pages to this thread now. I read up to 18. If I missed anything in the last two pages that hadn't already been said 14 times before...I apologize.

I'm only butting in to add that I think it was Einstein who said, 'The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources'...or something like that. Even he knew that there are overlaps in creation. We are all getting our inspiration from somewhere, direct copies or not.

Even if I personally felt I own something, obviously nobody else thinks I do and trying to keep a grip on something like that is like trying to hold onto jello by squeezing it harder in the palm of your hand. LOL The tighter you try to hold on, the more you lose.

I can only control Mary. I wrote tutorials and recognize human nature enough to know that some people were going to use them as they saw fit no matter what I requested or permitted. I bought tutorials and personally choose NOT to make the designs from them, but to use the new techniques and integrate them into my own beads. I'm not a hobbyist. I'm not a part-timer. I'm not just trying to keep my fingers busy or pass time. I don't consider myself an artist either, it makes me feel funny to say or write that but it seems to be the standard description glass peeps give themselves so I do use it sometimes. I just make stuff. My stuff. I don't want to make other people's stuff. It is my choice.

Not everyone will make that same choice. I cringed when I saw that bangle bead tutorial for sale, not because I was judging the author, but because I knew that a shit storm was coming and I was right. I knew what SOME other people would think, what they would say. It wasn't going to be pretty. It IS predictable.

THIS is exactly what tutorial writers are trying to warn people about, just geared toward beads instead of tutorials. If the author of that tutorial would have asked me what I thought, I would have had to in good conscience tell her that I thought she was putting her neck in a noose. The copying issue is too inflammatory to want anything to do with it.

Same thing with beads. Here is where I have a contradiction to myself even. I share freely. I give permission for anyone to do whatever they want with my tutorial. They would have anyway, so why not be gracious about it? If you make a bead directly from my tutorial...go ahead sell it, gift it, smash it, string it...it is your bead. But if you sell it and someone NOT aware of my tutorial, not aware of LE threads, not aware of my website notice giving permission, it is very possible you will be called out. Just like that tutorial author is being called out right now. It happens! It does.

So, do I tell you to take what you want from me...but then not warn you what might happen if you do? Even if it doesn't come directly from ME, it could come from someone else. The only time I've ever been accused of copying, it was a friend of the originating artist who confronted me. Not the artist herself...a friend of hers.

I am well aware that there are lots of types of glass workers. Some want to be originators, some are real artists, some are hobbyists, some of dabblers, some are newbies with great potential, some are oldies with no potential at all. LOL We all have different goals, different perspectives.

I wrote a disclaimer on my tutorial sale page allowing people to do whatever they want to do with the beads they make from my tutorials. But I did not take out my encouraging statements within the tutorials urging people to stretch and grow. I'm sorry if this offends people who don't want to stretch and grow, or are just out to have fun. But there are some people who buy my tutorials who aren't like that and I have to write to them as well. Those little snippets of text aren't aimed at people who would disregard it anyway...they are aimed at those who want something different and are working toward it. I can't take them out and still feel like myself.

I don't think tutorial writers are trying to have their cake and eat it too. I know I'm not. I truly, deeply, honestly don't feel territorial about the beads I make. I really don't care if you list a jellyfish bead on etsy right next to mine. Truly don't mind at all. I'm just not wired that way. But that doesn't mean someone else might not think something about it.

I also don't think tutorial writers need to make decisions for other people. But do you think that the tutorial writer now defending her actions wouldn't have appreciated a heads-up? A friendly reminder of how a lynch mob works? A road sign saying...icy bridge ahead?

Or maybe there is a new bead maker out there who thinks they just can't come up with anything original or fresh. Maybe all they need is a nudge, a gentle push. That is who my statements about 'springboard' and 'starting point' are geared toward.

If you don't want to use them as a springboard, that's fine. Copy the tutorial word for word and do whatever you want. To each his own. But I can't take those out. I just can't. I can't control YOU...I can only control ME and I intend to.

I do get kinda sad when I see the negative bickering in threads like this. Quite a bit of it was uncalled for and did nothing to further the discussion. A lot of this boils down to the difference between technique and design and frankly even if that DID get ironed out in this thread, LE is just the tip of the iceburg. What about all the beadmakers out there who don't have an online presence? (aka most of them) What if they don't get the memo? LOL

I know what technique is, I know what design is...to me. For someone else it is different.

If you apply it to something familiar...like the term interior design, here is how it breaks down in my mind:

techniques:
hanging curtains
sewing pillows
painting walls
laying carpet

style:
asian
southwestern
traditional
french provincial

design:
How you execute the techniques and choose the materials to result in a certain style.

For example,
I choose pale yellow floral and sew it into panel curtains. I make blue toile pillow shams. I paint the walls a neutral shade of cream and add some dark wood furniture.

I have just created a french provincial styled room. However, because I have chosen unique patterns, fabrics, and furniture pieces, the room I DESIGNED will look different than a room another designer might have come up with. Same style---french provincial--different design.

Apply this same mentality to beadmaking and you get this:

techniques
raised dots
applying twisties
using a razor to sculpt hot glass
silver leaf on the surface

style:
goddess bead

Design:
Form a base of ivory, add raised dots for the breasts, use twisties for the hair, use the razor to sculpt the legs and other creases, apply silver leaf to the surface and burn off

OK, so say that was what the tutorial taught you, BUT

option #2 using the same exact techniques:

Form a base bead of ivory, sculpt the chest with the razor to form a male chest, add male dangly bits with raised dots and twistie, apply silver leaf to the backside but leave shiny and intact.

Two completely different designs in the same style with the same techniques.

This feels so simple to me, but I guarantee you some people disagree with me and they feel that what they believe is so simple to them and can't understand why nobody else GETS IT.

Nobody else gets it because we don't all agree. We are never going to agree.

Even if we get most people to agree, we are never all going to think it is the same thing.

The best thing we can do is control ourselves and stop trying to control everybody else.

~~Mary