Sumi Reduex

So as I was putting the last photo up, Sumi decided to get a closer look, so I took a photo of Sumi watching the monitor...and then a photo of Sumi in front of the photo of Sumi watching the monitor....god, I just love digital photography!

April BJP

I felt pretty safe finishing this one ahead of time...April rains are a fact of nature for us and even global warming hasn't totally changed that! Not yet, anyway...
So here she is...being both rained upon and seeing the birds flying in the clear sky area...pretty much what I expect April to bring us.

No Bead and Button

Just heard back from Lora Groszkiewicz, Editorial Assistant at Bead&Button magazine, and they're not interested in publishing my little seahorses. I'm thinking I'll just go ahead and write up instructions and sell them myself...any opinions on that idea?

Ahead...

I'm working on the next bjp piece for April...I know I'm ahead but the great metal face just couldn't wait...or maybe it's that I couldn't wait to use it?
Ya think?

Beadboxman

Got this great refurbished cigar box from the beadboxman on etsy for all my lampworked beads...I have a bunch of these pieces but never use them since they're always packed away....well, now they're in this great display case...now let's see if I can make something with a few!

TIF Finished

My March TIF is done, although I need to print out another book...but I'm out of colored ink for the printer so that will have to wait until next month. But this is pretty much what it will look like. I took some of my older drawings and shrunk them into tiny sizes and put them into the accordian book for this month's piece. I love the tiny details of flowers, so they were my theme...and the color of the fabric actually matched the color palette for this month, so I scored twice, yay!

Lazy Day

I'm being lazy today and just playing with my camera...my spring bunny likes his new nest inside the felted bowl which is nestled inside a tiny jade bowl...

First Three Basho Finished

I finished the backs of the first three Basho pieces today while gallery sitting....they will all look like this one...black (much darker than the photo shows) ultrasuede with small eyes (from hook & eye sets) and whipstitched all around...

Sunshine

It was warm in the sun, if you were protected from the wind, so I stayed in the van and parked by the bay and then came home and sat on the sunporch, where it got up to 80...but burrr...the wind was cold!

A Couple More

for Diana...

Seahorse

I've just submitted this little seahorse to Bead and Button to see if they'd like to publish an article on him...I've been teaching 2-day classes on him for quite a while and haven't seen anything like him in any of the magazines, so they might be interested.

House Pin/Pendant

Got a bit tired of doing "big" stuff, so this little house pin was an afternoon's work...

Basho #36 Komatsu

Basket with Nailheads

I finally got the tiny black nailheads I've been looking for and finished my little felted basket.

Kanazawa, Basho #35 Finished

Nine more and counting, eh....

10 More

and the Basho series will be mostly finished...whew! I'll have to say I've learned a lot from this series, not the least to probably not do one this large again anytime soon!
I started this in january of 2007, so it's been 14 months so far...that's a long time to sustain a single inspiration...even a book full of them...

Damp

Our local damp weather seems to have dampened down my creativity a bit...I did play around with a little crochet this week and almost felted a basket...I don't think I have the patience for felting...this little green guy only took 20 minutes to crochet but to have completely felted it would have taken quite a bit longer...the little rust colored one is just shrunk a bit...
I'm also a bit dampened down on the Basho...got this far on 34 and just can't see where to go next...
Oh well, a little bit of sunshine tomorrow might get me back on track...

A Little Freeform Pendant/Pin

The center is a vintage German cabochon and there are swarovski flowers and 22kt. gold bugles and charlottes.
The back side shows the ultrasuede and the pin/pendant finding I use.
I made it in the shape of a comma, since it's just a little pause before I get back into the Basho series...

Yahoo...Basho 33 Finished

Which makes me 3/4 of the way done....whew!

TIF March

I'm almost finished with the March take it forward challenge but I haven't done the book yet. I decided against using some of g. okeeffe's flowers and will be doing a book of some of my colored pencil begonias I did many moons ago. I scanned them and have been using them on cards, but this will be fun to shrink them down to tiny book size.

March TIF and Basho 32

Just in the early stages of the March TIF but the 32rd Basho piece is done...this is the first month I'll be using the colors and the theme in the TIF...the book will be another tiny bit of Georgia O'Keeffe...her flowers this time...flowers are the tiny details of nature compared to the trees and bushes, but oh, how beautiful...

Copyrights?

I have to say the issue of what is copyrightable and what isn't and what is ethical and what isn't is beginning to confuse me a bit. With the proliferation of magazines, books, classes, workshops, online patterns and teachers, the edges are beginning to blur a bit. Thankfully, there are a few points I am clear on!

First, it is never acceptable to copy pages from a book, class or magazine and use them to teach your own class unless you are the author of the pages. Second, it is never acceptable to copy someone's original work, whether it be a quilt, a piece of jewelry, a wallhanging, etc. for anything other than personal use without permission from the creator. I have always assumed it is ok to make it for personal use, otherwise why include step by step instructions on making it? Right?

You with me so far?

Now is where is begins to blur for me...if I learn a technique from a magazine and make an original design can I sell/teach it? How "original" does my design have to be, since we already know that the technique didn't originate with me? From what I see in the magazines, books, etc., it seems that you cannot actually copyright a technique, especially something like the well-known off loom stitches like peyote, herringbone, brick, right-angle weave, etc. But you can copyright certain combinations? Or are just the finished pieces copyrightable?

Let me give you a recent example...I am a fan of Phyllis Dintenfass's beadwork, especially the wonderful components she creates with a unique combination of peyote and herringbone stitch. A few months ago there was a profile of Phyllis in a wellknown bead magazine with many samples of her work including some jewelry made with multiples of her components. I looked her up on the web and found that she not only teaches, but she also sells patterns and kits of some of her work. I was interested in a particular component she calls a "sea whirl" and contacted her and was able to purchase the instructions for the component. Now I've made several of these little sea whirls, using different beads (seeds in place of delicas or 15's in place of 11's and different colors of beads)...now the question is can I sell these components? Can I teach them (not using Phyllis's instruction sheets, of course)? I would always give her verbal credit, of course, and not claim them as my own original idea (although I've seen cases where this was not honored at all!), but is it even ok to do that? How far beyond making them for my own personal use can I go? Or is that where I need to stop?

I also have to say I was confused by seeing others teaching classes based on what looks to me like Phyllis's components but using them in a slightly different way....since Phyllis is also teaching in that same venue, I would guess that it's acceptable? Or, is the technique itself, the particular combination of two non-copyrightable stitches, also not copyrightable?

What do you think?