That Demon Pinterest!

Hello, Lovely Tatters!  Yes, again it has been a while, but I've been trying to keep up with what's happening in the tatting world through Facebook and chattering with some knotty friends.  I can blow things up bigger so it makes it easier for me to see, but actually working with the thread remains problematic.  I have, however, been given the news that I have doubled vision, which creates a shadow underneath what I'm looking at.  Road signs and headlights, especially at night, are an awful problem, and reading anything off a computer screen, unless I blow it up HUGE, is near impossible.  The good news is, though, that I may have new glasses soon that will compensate for this!  Once that's done, and they prove successful, watch me go!  I have ideas coming out my ears!

I have been talking with some folks online about Pinterest, and how much they dislike how some novice artists think it's a free-for-all for finding patterns.  New tatters haven't yet had their knuckles rapped by a designer for looking at a picture of a copyrighted design and counting stitches.  I've had to take that route with some of my own designs that were plagiarized right from my own profile on Facebook!  It was then posted on Pinterest as "an original design" by someone that had no business doing so. I had a watermark on it and everything, but there it is in bold living colour!

Let me put it this way:  I love designing.  I really do!  There are some patterns I will share for free, but I would appreciate being given credit for designing them.  It wasn't easy, trust me!  Tatting the same thing over and over and un-tatting something just so I can get that stitch count juuuuust right is a really tedious and boring part of this whole designing thing.  I am, however, very proud of my finished products and I love o show everyone what is possible.

What really sticks in my craw is theft.  If you take MY design and you think you're not doing anything wrong just because it was posted on Pinterest (I don't post anything on Pinterest anymore just for this reason) by someone who thinks THEY'RE not doing anything wrong, it's still theft.  If you don't credit the designer somehow in your finished product, as in "inspired by" or "based on" someone else's design, that's just rude.  

People who write books in the hope of covering the cost of creating something beautiful or promote tatting are trying to do something honest.  They are promoting tatting, something that needs to be kept current because it IS a unique fibre art.  They sell their work for many reasons, not least among them is to generate income to help feed their families!  When a COPYRIGHTED book, or pages from that book, are posted on any service remotely LIKE Pinterest, that designer loses that income.  If no permission is given to post their book on those sharing sites, it is THEFT and there are severe repercussions to this if those avenues are persued.

You're not helping anyone by "copy-tatting." You are insulting designers, you are perpetuating a culture of theft, and you're eventually going to get a reputation (not a good one!).  You're not getting out of any kind of responsibility if you show off something and then invite people to message you in secret for the pattern you stole, either.  It's still plagiarism and that is THEFT.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but I really don't like thieves.  I can accept that someone new to an art does it once not realizing what they're doing.  I will tell them that they get "this one for free", please don't do it again.  What REALLY makes my blood boil is going to see what everyone is up to and finding ANOTHER instance of copy-tatting.  Maybe not my work, but someone else's.  I have a friend I talk on the phone with regularly who is also a prominent designer. I have reported theft of a couple of her books to her, and she deals with it very quickly and she's not kind.  The lady is an amazing artist, and she has a HUGE heart, but she is as protective of her own work as she is of anyone else's copyrighted material.  Piece of advice?  DON'T copy-tat her stuff.  You won't like what happens because she won't stand for it!

I am rambling here, I know, but I can't be more passionate about this.  Please don't copy patterns.  There are SO many free patterns out there.  If you can't find something that's free, please support the artists and purchase their patterns.  You're helping them, you're saving yourself, and everyone wins.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.  I'm going to go do my dishes.

Happy Tatting!

 

Saying Good Bye

 Hello Lovely Tatters.  I have been absent from my blog for quite some time and I do apologize.  I've had some health concerns that are being addressed, but they've kept me off here.  I've also been tending my much-extended garden, discovering the joys of canning and preserving, and helping friends move out of town.  My husband also changed jobs again, and I'm adjusting to his new schedule, too.  So many things keeping you away from what you enjoy doing.

I come to you on this day with sad news.  The tatting community has lost a bright star, and I feel this one particularly hard.

Have you ever seen a skeleton key with a tatted lace frill around the bow?  If you have, it was likely either created by, or inspired by, Carollyn Brown.

Carollyn was a sweet lady that I met at The Tatting Corner's first Tat Days in Indiana in 2018. She had me in tears of laughter with her pronunciation of "Saskatchewan".  She pronounced it "Sasquatchewan" and I laughed so hard I couldn't see.  I still giggle about it. There was more to the conversation, all of it was great fun, but Sasquatchewan was a particularly funny memory.  She and I joked about it back and forth.  I ordered some keys to work with from her, and when I opened the package I found a pink disposable razor.  No note, but she was teasing me about being from "Sasquatchewan".  I needed a shave.  I still smile at that one.

She was one of the most talented people I've had the privilege to meet.  She could draw, she could work with wood, she could tat like a fiend, so many things.  If you ever saw her Pinterest page or her Instagram account, or her blog, you would know there was no limit to her talent.  She was a light that you couldn't extinguish, and will continue to burn because it was such a bright flame.

Please go have a look at her accounts:

Pinterest has her listed as @madtatter80

Her Blog is at https://tennbrown.blogspot.com/

Her Instagram account is listed as "private" and getting in to see her work is only on approved request.

You may have noticed that I am referring to this lovely lady in the past tense.  There's a reason for this.

Carollyn suffered a massive stroke earlier this week.  She was on life support, but her family took her off all interventions and let nature take its' course.  Carollyn left us shortly after on Wednesday night.  She left behind her husband and family, all of whom are deeply suffering her loss.  Those of us that knew her as an artist and friend share their grief.  The hardest part is that Carollyn was only 59 years old, and seemed so much younger.  She was a bubbly, loving, talented and sweet lady that has left a hole that will be so hard to fill.

Carollyn taught her pattern, Key to Happiness, at the 2019 Tat Days.  It has inspired me to create others, and I will always keep this key closest to my heart.

Key to Happiness by Carollyn Brown, 2019

I can't tat very much lately.  Some of the continuing health issues I am experiencing have caused my eyesight to be an issue.  Small threads and tiny beads are absolutely impossible for me to see at the minute, even with a magnifying glass.  I'm hoping the doctor will deal with that soon.

What Carollyn's departure has done for me is to cement my resolve to create once the doctor resolves my issues with my vision.  Don't hide your light under a bushel, let it shine.  Show everyone what you're able to do.  Push yourself to excel to the best of your ability.  There will always be someone a hair better than you, but you know what?  Who cares??  Use their creation for inspiration to create something else.  If what you do leaves you fulfilled and happy, there's no point comparing yourself to anyone else.  Be like Carollyn and embrace your artistic side.  Share it with everyone you can find, because there will be people you will never meet who will be inspired to create because of what you do.  Don't hide your light.

Rest in peace, dear Carollyn.  We will miss you very much.

Zooming Into Meeting in Canada!

Hello, Everyone!!  I am here after one of my infamous extended lulls in conversation to bend your ear once again.

Here on the bald flat prairie our area is experiencing a spring storm.  Yes, you heard me, a SNOWSTORM in the middle of April.  It started out really mucky with rain falling, which then turned to a mix of rain AND snow (!!?) that made the highways like driving on greased glass.  Had I not needed to make a trip to town it would have been nice to stay home and have a nice cup of something warm and shiver in the comfort of my nice warm house.  Such was not what happened, however.  We got on the highway in my Jeep that had just had the switch to summer tires and we almost landed in the ditch more than once.  New plan for tire changes in our house is now NOT to do this until at least the end of April.  Ah, Canada...

It's on days like this that you want to stay inside and tat something beautiful. However, it's difficult these days to find folks to tat WITH.  It gets boring  being isolated all the time.  One of the joys of our chosen artform is being able to show each other what we've done and how we're getting along with a new technique, or even just asking questions has become very problematic. 

Further irritating this problem is the lack of information about group of tatters meeting on a regular basis here in Canada. Well, there's a group of lacemakers, which includes tatters, that offer a virtual forum via Zoom at this group:

https://hinterlandlacers.wordpress.com/

If you would like some more information on this group and how to join their monthly Zoom meetings held on the fourth Sunday of the month, please send an email to hinterlandlacers@gmail.com.  Let them know you're interested in joining them, what kind of lace you make (tatting, bobbin lace, etc) and in what province you live. That way they can help you determine what time of day you can attend their meeting, as time zones vary from province to province.  They will give you further information from there. I'm going to send them an email because I'm going stir-crazy and would love to visit with some like-minded artists!  I need to see FACES!

Even if you don't want to attend their monthly meetings, I'm sure you can get information about supplies on their "Resources" tab on the website.  They have some classes listed, too!  I'm not sure what kind of classes they are, but that's what questions are for! I'm certainly going to see about adding some of their links to my own list!  You can never have enough information!

Well, dear friends, the time has come for me to go see if I can shift some of that snow off my doorstep.  The poor dog needs to go outside and he's looking at the 10" of accumulated white stuff like he might catch cooties if his toes touch it.  Ahh, the joys of living in Canada.

Happy Tatting!

Cruising Copyright Complexities

 Hello Lovely Tatters, and I hope you’re all enjoying the winter that almost never was! Here on the bald, flat Canadian prairie we’ve had next to no snow, above-freezing temperatures, a Christmas that was mostly green, weeks where we actually had rain, it was a very different season overall. This week we finally got seasonal temperatures. Winter is almost over, so it’s about time winter showed up. Just in time for Spring!

This is what the temperature in my local area is as of 5pm on February 7, 2121.  In Celsius, it's -27 degrees, but with the wind chill it's -39 degrees.  Farenheit says it's -17 degrees, but the wind chill says it's -38 degrees.  I have to go to Regina tomorrow morning, and when we're ready to leave to go to the big city, the temperature will be a balmy -36 degrees Celsius and -50 degrees with the wind chill.  In Farenheit, it will read -33 degrees, and the wind chill will read -58 degrees.  Please cross your fingers that Beloved and I don't freeze solid halfway there!

Since I’ve been stuck in the house, literally, with the cold my brain has done the customary wandering that comes with boredom. I recently looked on any artist’s nemesis, Pinterest, as I do get inspiration and ideas from there. I was shocked and more than a little angry to fine MY design proudly displayed on a Pinterest page that I had never heard of, without any credit given to it being my design! 

Pinterest is banned from being mentioned in many groups for one reason:  copyright infringement. Now, many can’t understand why it’s such a big deal if you “copytat” a pattern you find (look at a photo and recreate the item by counting stitches), post something created from the pattern of another and claim the work as your own, take an idea you heard from another source and incorporate it into your own work without crediting the source, all kinds of things. It’s complicated and not without pitfalls. 

I saw a post by Cynthia Stevenson in a Facebook group called “Beginning Tatting Helpers”. In her post, she presented a flowchart that I felt hit the nail on the head.

This flowchart explores the various different scenarios that arise from making and sharing designs and patterns, and the ethical questions of whether you should in the first place. It was originally presented in 2014 by a crafter named Ginger Davis Allman, and is intended as a guideline so you can decide for yourself if you should continue on a selected course of action. One of the disclaimers at the bottom does indicate that you should seek legal advice, which is especially true if you’re thinking of publishing a book professionally. You should be seeking advice in that event for your own protection and so you have solid recourse if you are the the one victimized by copyright infringement.

Let’s take an example: A tatter has spent 5 years creating patterns, drawing them out, writing directions, editing photos, rewriting the directions, sourcing and communicating with testers, paying no small fortune to have their book published so everyone can benefit from this crowning achievement. The book sells well, people praise the work, there are examples of the different projects made from the book shared in so any places, the book is a huge success. Life is good for our tatter.

Until...

One day, the tatter goes into one of the groups they frequent and sees a blatant advertisement of THEIR book for sale at a questionable website for 1/3 the book's original list price. The tatter heads over to this website only to find out that their book has been purchased, ripped apart, scanned cheaply and is being sold as a .PDF. The book then finds its’ way to a “free” website where every Tom, Dick and Harry can download a copy for free, without any financial credit to the author. The tatter’s ideas, hard work and financial outlay to share this book have been stolen for someone else’s benefit!

Mine was just a motif, an ice drop that I did share freely. What was irksome is that this “person” rewrote my directions, left my name completely off their copy and made it out to be theirs. I dealt with it and reported them to Pinterest, but I wasn’t happy. Why would anyone steal something  that was free in the first place and shared without any strings except you credit the designer? I certainly wouldn't appreciate someone coming into my house and stealing my stuff.  My intellectual property is no different.

If you do this and the the designer catches you, then you run the risk of being publicly called out, which is never fun. I have seen copyright thieves banned from Facebook groups, not allowed to attend conventions, just shunned in general. It’s nasty and it’s embarrassing to be “that tatter”.

If you're wanting to look at things, that's great.  There's nothing wrong with browsing.  If you get an idea from someone online, give them the credit for inspiring what you created.  If you've made something from a book written by someone else, please credit them with the creation of that pattern!  A lot of that person's creative heart has gone into the creation of that idea.  Don't stab them in it to make yourself happy.  It's copyright infringement that's holding back a great many talented people from sharing their creative talents and inspiring the next generations of tatters.

On that note, I'm going to make a cup of something hot so I can try to warm myself up.  It's blessed cold outside!

Happy Tatting!

But What Do I DO With It?

Hello Lovely Tatters!

I’m hoping this finds all of you and yours safe, sane, and healthy. That’s a tall order these days, I know, but I don’t like the alternative. For myself, I spend a great deal of time in solitary pursuits so time away from other people isn’t frequently a hardship. For some others, it can be a very challenging issue and I hope you’ve got a support network! 

There’s nothing worse than trying to deal with being alone when you’re not accustomed to being able to come and go at your leisure, then suddenly being told you can’t go to your “zen” places. It’s like having the rug ripped out from under you, I’m sure! Never a fun feeling. For this reason I am so grateful for my tatting community at large, and several people therein that I consider friends. Shoutout to my “peeps’, you will never know how very deeply I appreciate each and every one of you!

I am frequently found out and about town here (our local lockdown guidelines still allow for socially distant use of restaurants and coffee shops) I take my tatting. I’m frequently approached by a masked face admiring the work or wanting to just watch. One thing I always get asked, however, and it does bug me: “What do you DO with it?”

It’s at this point that I grab my phone and open up my “Tatting” folder in my picture app. I take photos of everything I’ve completed, or I take pictures as I’m designing so I can see the progression of an item and think about where to make changes. I also have a notebook, but it’s all scribbles and I doubt anyone could read it.  If we're being honest, there are times I can barely read it myself. Unlike my good friend, Sandi, I'm not that great with a pencil and paper.

In my photos are pictures of so many things. I have pictures of ice drops, button ornaments, doilies, baby booties, decorated keys, jewelry, snowflakes, baby bonnets (one of which I was able to make when employed at an historic village restoration in Nova Scotia!), barefoot sandals (popular for beach weddings), decorative bags (made one as a gift for a friend's knitting goodies), the list is ENDLESS!!  Put it this way, if you can make it with knitting or crochet, you can make it with tatting!  Do you like pineapple crochet doilies?  There is a lady in one of the tatting groups that is developing a way to make them with tatting, and she's doing a bang-up job, too! No, I'm not into pineapple designs, never have been, but I can appreciate the work that goes into converting the pattern and making it work.

Tatting is "knot" a lost art!  It is making a resurgence and since the pandemic hit, that resurgence is gaining momentum like gangbusters!  If it was a snowball rolling down a mountainside, it would be the size of a small city by now and shows no sign of slowing down!  Tatting patterns, once written in what I considered a foreign language, are now written in any way you might like to read them.  Charted, point form, paragraph form, some are presented in videos, some are step by step with photos.  There are beautifully edited blogs (unlike mine that is relatively boring, sorry, I'm not a tech guru!), some with wonderful videos.

If you go to your web browser and type the word "tatted lace" or "tatting lace" or just "tatting", you'll get some hits that include tattoo art, but you'll get an unbelievable number of sites that offer eye candy of unbelievable beauty.  There are tutorials, there are videos demonstrating advanced techniques.  Blogs that outline patterns, or offer information on where to find things.  If you can find a language, there's likely a tatting blog written in it, and maybe in some languages you've not thought of (and that's where the "translate" button on the browser bar comes in SO handy!).

Tatting, for me, has been sent from Heaven.  It has connected me to a global community of wonderful and talented people that are so willing to share what they know with anyone interested in learning that I'm sure the art will thrive.  People share their patterns freely, yes, but others have put in exhaustive work and are selling their books; the result is most often just breathtaking.  

If you're just starting on this journey, you're embarking on a life-long passion that will become an addiction, so consider this fair warning!  You will lose yourself in the grace and balance that offers itself freely in the rhythm of making the knots, and in the graceful curves and loops afforded by the rings and chains.  It can be mesmerizing.  You're entering into a world-wide community of artisans that are warm, welcoming, intelligent talented beyond words, and willing to help any way they can.  Glad to have you with us!

Happy Tatting!

Silencing That Inner Voice

Hello, Lovely Tatters!  Wow, two months since my last blog post!  I'm back to my couch potato mode, I suppose.

I've not done a lot to brag about in the last few weeks.  I've tatted a bunch of  button ornaments, redesigned one of my ice drops to work on a button, ordered a ton of stuff I am anxiously waiting for that seems to be forever coming.  

Christmas has come and gone, New Year is now another memory.  We didn't decorate at all inside the house, but the front lawn looked like Las Vegas at night!  Between us and the neighbours, I'm sure we kept the electric company hopping!   Beloved has decided that he wants to add a new display each year.  I wonder if he realizes that we have a finite amount of space to add an infinite number of his display ideas?  I shouldn't complain, it keeps him busy!

I wonder if any of you have had time to look at the tatting groups on Facebook, particularly Diane Cademartori's newest  brainchild,"Tatted Button Ornaments".  These are FUN!!  I thought ice drops were addictive, but I've found myself exploring buttons online in antique sites, Etsy pages, Ebay sites, local stores, online vendors, it's weird!  I may be looking at buttons when I head to the Big City next week when I'm there for another appointment (oh, yay! NOT!!).

Have you considered what you would do to update a motif or existing pattern to work in another application?  It's really not that hard!  It just takes a little "out of the box" thinking. 

Consider the following:

This is my "Suzan Sunshine" Ice Drop, designed for the FaceBook group "Ice Drop Addicts" in 2018.  The pattern is in the files section of that group, if you're at all interested in giving it a whirl.

I've been a busy girl, and I've added to it, as you can see here:

I decided I wasn't happy with the original pattern because it just looked "unfinished" somehow, although I've had many people express sincere pleasure in how it looks and how easy Suzan is to make.  There are two rounds to the update, but it looks like much more and I have to admit, I do like the update!

Now, consider this adaptation:

I told you I was busy over the holidays!  I decided Suzan would lend herself well to a button, and it did!  I was really very pleased with how easy it was to do this!

To further illustrate how easy it was to adapt this to a button, here is the as-yet-unnamed adaptation I made to the Ice Drop, again to fit a button:

This has been a really interesting journey!  Here's another, but this one was never made as an Ice Drop:

This is adapted from the book, "Tatted Treasures" by a gentleman named Jan Stawasz.  It's the main motif from his Waistcoat pattern found in that book.  I have a thing for spirals and had a really fun time with this one.  It worked up surprisingly quickly.  As this was never my pattern to start with, I have not added a watermark to it.

One last piece, and I'm sure this one will resonate with many people:

This one is based on Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel Glass Mat from her book, "Tatting with Visual Patterns".  I'm so sorry, but the photo isn't of a blocked ornament.  I'm afraid the dog got a bit anxious and this got the tooth treatment.  There's not a lot left of it.  

Anyway, the arms are shortened by a ring or two, but beyond that there aren't that many changes needed.

So many of us look at others' works and say "oh, I wish I could do that" or "I'll never be able to do that".  We set ourselves up to fail, and it's so sad.

Perhaps, the next time you admire something and would love to make it your own, don't listen to the little voice telling you that you can't.  Did I waste thread?  Yes, I most certainly did.  Did I get frustrated? Put it this way, we were getting close to a projectile tatting moment at many points along the way!  Did I have to start over again?  Oh, yes!

Did I quit?  NO, I did not!

Don't listen to that ugly little voice telling you can't!  You'll be very pleasantly surprised at what you can do if you just put in your inner ear plugs and don't listen to that ugly little voice of self-doubt and just TRY!

Happy Tatting!