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!
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