Lj Idol Season 7 Week 12: The sincerest form of flattery?

[puppetmaker]

Years ago I was walking through an art show at Chattacon. I noticed that several artists had done pictures of cats with wings. Before that I had noticed a dragon trend so I figured that unicorns would be next rapidly followed by fairies. These sorts of art themes seem to run in an almost cyclical. But each time the cycle would go around, I would hear rumblings of one artist ripping off another artist or trying to make money off of another’s idea.

There is an artist I admire who does lovely painting of animals both real and mythical on feathers and rocks. Her work is very reasonably priced and she does well at all sorts of conventions. There is another artist who does the same thing but tends not to send out original work but limited edition prints. Artist number 2 started show about 3 years after Artist number 1 was well established. Artist 2 does pretty well for themselves. Personally I prefer Artist 1’s work in terms of look. Artist 2’s work looks pretty derivative of Artist 1 and both sell pretty well but I wonder if Artist 2 is cutting into Artist 1’s sales.

In the world of cloth dolls there is an underbelly that is backbiting and rather nasty. And it had to do with the profitable part of the business of selling dolls but more importantly patterns. Doll shows spell out very carefully in the paperwork how credit has to be given for patterns. Pattern makers write out very carefully whether you can sell the dolls that you make from the pattern or how many dolls you can make and sell from the pattern. Dolls have been pulled from shows after the artist didn’t list the pattern she used for part of the doll. Doll Magazines have published apologies to the creators of patterns that were proven to be used in the construction of dolls that they have in their pages credited to others. Recently a doll magazine got the money back from one doll maker for an article and paid the original pattern maker for the use of her pattern in their magazine without her permission. The doll was featured on the cover and within 24 hours of the magazine seeing print, they had a deluge of e-mail from doll makers tell them that the doll was really created by so and so.

My dolls have elements to them that I always give credit to Wendy Froud for since she taught me how to make dolls the way that she has made them over the years. She taught me some great armature tricks and how to make hands looks realistic. She is a very good teacher and very generous in passing on the tips and tricks that she has learned over time. I would never try to make a Froud Fairy because those are hers and Brian’s work. Are there some Froudian elements in my dolls, yes because that’s who taught me how to make these kinds of dolls.

Most puppet builders are pretty free with given information to each other to help build puppets. They use to be much more secretive but now with fewer of us around and many of us getting up there, there is a need to pass on information. I am willing to teach just about anyone how to build a puppet. I have learned how to build many kinds of puppets from other puppeteers, books, the Center for Puppetry Arts, and a lot of trial and error. I know how many of the Muppets are put together from either handling the puppets or from people who have worked for Henson over the years. However I would never build and sell a replica of a Muppet. I have build a couple over the years for me and as gifts for friends but I have never made a profit off of them. There was (is probably) a company (and I use the term loosely) that has been removed from Ebay more than once for selling “Muppets”. They keep changing their name but they are found and removed. They have all kinds of rationalizations why they should be able to do this. Now they are no longer blatantly selling replicas because they have Disney breathing down their neck so the photos of the Replica Muppets are still up on their site but any sales are under the table.

The world of publishing is a whole other can of worms. One person makes a ton of money writing about Zombies and as an editor you find about twenty zombie scripts showing up on your desk. Vampires have played out for the most part. Werewolf stories are on the rise. But again like art work, it goes in cycles. We’ll soon be back to cats with wings and ghost stories.

This was my entry for this week for the LJ Idol. This was my third full essay on the topic at hand. I had three ideas from the prompt but went for this one.

Comments

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

Excellent article, one of your best.

I think that we'll always have some ties to our teacher in our work, but it's like being a child of the style, not a clone. That's the joy of being a teacher.

But stealing work destroys that precious relationship. It makes teachers less likely to teach, which is a tragedy.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I think that teachers teach because they have to. There is some drive that makes you want to pass on information. I know that if someone asks me a question, I am more than happy to answer it and more power to them if they can do it better than me.

The people who "forget" or really don't care about stepping on toes are not in the majority but when they do something that is pretty blatant then it is more in the spotlight so some people who might have been thinking about teaching or pattern making are less likely to do so.

My biggest example for this is a wonderful doll maker Nuno or Runo depending on which of her sites you are on. She has had patterns out there for years
http://dollmaker.nunodoll.com/
All she asks for is credit. Since someone has been selling her patterns on Esty and Ebay as theirs, she has not added anything which is a shame.

[mommyspike.livejournal.com]

Well said.
*applauds*

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I knew that you would get it and understand what I was talking about.

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

This was a great take on the topic that I hadn't thought of.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

This was the third of three ideas that popped into my head. I dismissed one because it was not my story to tell and the other made it look like I was bragging about who I know which I never do.

Then I went to the dollboard and saw the thread about the pattern theft and the whole thing fell into place.

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

That's one thing I like about you, not bragging about who you know.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I try not to. I guess part of it has to do with these people being my friends and friends of the family so I know them in a different context than most people. Sometimes I really have to hold my tongue when I see things that are untrue and hurtful but the knowledge I have was given to me under the seal of friendship or because of a Non-disclosure agreement.

[creature-girl08.livejournal.com]

Great take on the topic. It is a little thing but I seem to learn something new from what you write. Good stuff.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I try to be informative as well as entertaining.

It is a topic that is a little near and dear to my heart because of something that happened to my husband and his works.

[basric.livejournal.com]

Well written and I think for every wonderful idea and creation there are a hundred people hiding in the shadows ready to steal or copy it.

You proved this quite well.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

This is something I have seen for years in convention art shows. Someone does very well with something and next year you see 20 different versions of it. For a while it was wooden boxes and the like with patterns either painted or wood-burned mostly with fannish themes. Now there is a lot more fabric and knitting in the mix.

Next I expect to see everything steampunk.

[myrna-bird.livejournal.com]

Very appropriate take on the prompt. I didn't realize there was so much regulation in using a (doll) pattern.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Yes there is.

In fact there are regulations to every professional pattern make. I recently read through the fine print on a McCalls patterns and I swear my eyes crossed a couple of times going through all the things you could and couldn't do.

I tend to make my own patterns so I don't have to deal with any of this.

[myrna-bird.livejournal.com]

I have trouble following patterns anyway so when I make quilts they are pretty original and unique crazy patch type.:)

[shadowwolf13]

I think that those who inspire us will always be found in our work, at least to some point.

It seems that no matter the medium there will always be those trying to leech off others, even more so when money's involved.

Since I've taken up knitting I've found that a lot of patterns are free but there are just as many that are not and those always come with a request to not sell any finished items but to give them as gifts.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Knitting is a whole other can of worms as some of my friends who make and test patterns for a living can tell you.

There is a lot of argument about what is copyright material and what is just patterns that have been done since time began and people started knitting.

[shadowwolf13]

Oh indeed! I have so much respect for anybody who creates, be it puppets or patterns, because I know how much work goes into it. It is very hard sometimes though to know what is new and what's been around for ages.

[similiesslip.livejournal.com]

This was very interesting to me. I had no idea doll patterns are so closely guarded!

I would love to see photos of your puppets!:)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Well ask and ye shall receive.

This link (http://web.mac.com/kathodavid/Kath_O_David/My_Albums/Pages/Various_Pieces_from.html) will take you to most of my work from 2010. There are a couple of pieces that I had to send out before photographing.

If you go up to albums, there are other sets of photos from various shows I have done.

[onda-bianca.livejournal.com]

Interesting...

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

And thank you for reading.

[dreamchaser.livejournal.com]

I'm with some of the other commenters - I did not know that there were so many regulations over doll patterns.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

It is a little known fact and does come as a surprise to some who find that their dolls have been taken out of competition in a doll show.

The doll world is both big and small at the same time so we keep an eye on each other.

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

I kind of like the fact that in 24 hours, so many people were able to identify the origin of that doll pattern.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

It was probably less time than that. The first posting I saw on the doll board was within that time frame of the magazine being delivered. It was a question about it and by the time that a couple of other people had gotten the magazine that day, it was confirmed.

[hammaboo.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of when my mom used to work the craft show circuit. You'd see some things that were obvious copies, with no credit given, and then you'd see things where the original was credited.

[lawchicky.livejournal.com]

Nice take on the topic. I found this very interesting!

[joeymichaels.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, you know in improv comedy, this is an issue that's always lurking in the back of my mind. Did I just use somebody else's line? Is there a way I can give them credit if I did?

The challenge is, when you're improvising, you can't let that sort of concern dominate your thinking or it will control you and short out your ability to perform. There's kind of an understanding we have that when you're improvising, you just have to roll with the scene and trust that if something pops out of your mouth, its fine, no matter what it is.

Since that's the case, when somebody else uses a line you used or gets a laugh doing something you did - unless it a habitual thing - you usually give them a hard time about it and you both laugh it off. They took something you said, but you know damn well that you're going to take something they said later.

Its like a creativity "give a penny, take a penny" thing.

Anyhow, I know its different when you're working with something tangible and cit-able, and am a firm believer in giving credit whenever possible. But with creative projects, its sometimes hard to recognize that the song you just made was actually a song by a band you really liked that they wrote 30 years ago, you know?

[snarkerdoodle.livejournal.com]

I love it when I read an Idol entry and learn things about whole new topics for me. Thanks for such an interesting read! :)