I’m working on getting some things finished. The computer and the Cody Foster nonsense is very distracting and disheartening. I can’t help it. It makes it very difficult to concentrate on my artwork. This is the latest with a statement from CF.
November fish 1 & 2
Two fish with some overlapping fabrics. The red in both fish is from a Hudson Bay blanket. The blue fish body is from an old Mexican rug, wool with a cotton warp.
Something else I’ve been meaning to post. My yellow dog was cover boy on the October Land Of Nod catalog!
and on the back too!
My 2013 line includes these 3 dogs and also 3 little mermaids. The mermaids are very small- on about 10″ tall. So cute! I hear they are going to have a pop-up store this year in the Boston area so hopefully I will be able to see them in person!
<3 red plaid
I feel like the finishing of things is going in slo-mo. This fellow has been on my desk for a while.
Lots of photos ahead!
He has a kerchief in his breast pocket.
And crossed axes on his belt buckle.
His chest tattoo is a cow and a milkmaid.
And some poultry on his arm.
Can you see that his hair is made from corduroy? Wool corduroy! I’ve had it in my stash for ages and finally gave it a try!
I am teaching the swaddled baby class this weekend at the New England Quilt Museum. I hear there is one seat left if any one is interested.
a tattooed man
I want to get to my normal posting over here.
It is hard though because the Cody Foster fiasco is continuing to roll itself out. I have now seen the catalog for the 2013 season and found 3 items that were copied from my designs. That negates any argument that any one individually might not have come from my designs, eh? I also saw items copied from some of my craft-biz friends. It breaks my heart. I still don’t know how I’m going to go forward with this. It takes a toll no matter what direction I go. Among other things, the haters have come out who think that anyone can copy anyone, fair game. And they yell really loud. Sigh.
Instead I want to tell you some happy news. Here is my secret. Lean in close and I’ll whisper…
I’m doing a sale with OneKingsLane in November!!! Some of these things I’ve been posting that haven’t shown up in my Etsy shop- that’s why! I will be posting more info as it gets closer but I am so excited!
I am trying to focus on the good stuff. Moving forward here…
ripped off again
Maybe you’ve been wondering why, if you follow all the social media, I haven’t posted anything over here about the copying mess with Cody Foster. Well, I was taking a few day off to relax after the crazy busy last 5 months… and then it all blew up. I had very little access to internet. Now I am home and trying to catch up with all the emails and everything else and thinking about what I ought to do.
Here is the deal. My lumberjack dolls from 2011 which are the ones most likely to have been used as “models”-
These are the lumberjack ornaments that Cody Foster produced-
I was originally notified about 1 1/2 weeks ago by someone I am connected with online that there was a striking resemblance. She has a flickr page to document the copying by this company. (She used a more recent lumberjack of mine as her reference.) I was in the middle of a big push for a deadline. I glanced at the tiny photo and thought, Oh Well, they aren’t that similar and I’m too busy to think about with this right now. On Tuesday I got several more emails and on Wednesday, well, everything blew up. And then I went and looked at the photos again. I searched and found a larger photo and that is when I saw the similarities- the details like the bottoms of the suspenders and how they made the eyes. Ugh.
Lisa Congdon wrote a blog post about the blatant copies of her work. She has a huge social network and the story took off like wild fire. If you are interested this story, here are a whole lot of links to articles and posts.
Abigail Brown wrote about it here. I love her incredible birds.
West Elm reacted quickly once the story came out.
The story was picked up by Yahoo News.
Jezebel.com focused on Lisa’s story. It even made it onto Boingboing.
FastCompany article here and a follow-up with a response from Fab.com. This is an excellent article because it talks about how easy it is to copy and get away with it. The cost of fighting these battles is too high for almost any indie designer.
LATimes article.
As you might know if you have been here a while, this is not the first time this has happened to me. Now that I am home, I need to figure out what I’m going to do. Lawyer-ing up is probably not a financial option. I feel like a wimp even thinking of just letting it go, or even limiting the fighting to social media, but this kind of thing is incredibly draining. It is depressing and pulls energy away from my creative work. Right now, this minute, I am most angry that this whole mess ruined my vacation. I have been working flat out, 7 days a week kind of schedule, for many many months. It feels so unfair that the minute I take a few days off… yeah, I know. Get over it!
Here is the positive side of things- I have incredible faith in the internet to keep this kind of evil in check. I am regularly contacted by people who have seen things online that they think are copies of my work. They do this because they love what I do and they are protective. I appreciate this more than I can express. The eyes of the internet keep us all honest, hopefully.
And the funny- I got an email from etsy telling me that one of my listings (this lumberjack) was getting a lot of views! Subject line- Congrats! One of your items is very popular.
Soon I will get back to regular programming.
Pug girl 3
And, a pile of pugs!
another boy pug
He looks so preppy and eager!
Pug 3- boy with zig zags
He is made from a light yellow wool sweater. He’s got a red cashmere scarf and that sweater is an amazing wool/cashmere blend- so soft!
Pug 2- Fall girl
She is dressed in some perfect fall colors.
next- pugs!
She has a curly tail in the back that pokes out of her cashmere skirt.
She is made from an old cream-colored cashmere coat.
