craftiquette?

A little bit of interestingness is going on in blogland at the moment, centred around the issue of copying. You can read a little more about the situation over at the Meet Me at Mikes blog.

I thought I'd flag this here on my blog also, given that it's an issue that's quite close to home for me at the moment. Shannon, Kristen and I have talked about it at some length recently - about blog etiquette in general and the sharing of ideas.

I like to think that I'm a fairly open person. I like to share information about my ideas and processes - how things came to be, sometimes even step by step tutorials. If someone emails me for specific information, I am usually quite willing to divulge.

I'm also quite sensitive about potentially copying someone else's ideas. If something I'm doing seems to close to someone else's, I like to flag it, like the birch forest design. And funnily enough, the other day when I was worrying about my notebook kit being too similar to another kit I saw at the trade show, it was the very same crafter (as in the issue above) who's "sew your own" kits I was referring to. Her packaging and the way she'd folded her fabric was just how I had done my prototype, and I was really worried that mine was accidentally too similar (until Shannon told me I was being silly).

Anyway, my point is, when you act/think a certain way, you sort of have the good faith that others will act/think similarly. When someone uses a large information that I give them on my blog or in an email (eg a tutorial), I implicitly expect that they'll give me credit somewhere along the line, because that's what I'd do. I don't expect this in all instances, but definitely ones where I've divulged specific information that you might not be able to get elsewhere.

But, unfortunately not everyone thinks this way, which is a little upsetting. Which raises the question - what is the correct blogging/crafting etiquette? How similar is too similar? When is credit due? What are your experiences and what do you expect from your blog readers and peers?

Linky love

Oh man, I feel like such a slack blogger lately. Here I am reading post after post by everyone else and I just have nothing. In fact I feel incredibly slack in all facets of my work lately. The weeks just seems to be rolling by, and at the end of the day its like: "what did I actually get done today?"

There's certainly stuff in the works though. Like a mysterious little collaboration I've got going with Lynn from Satsuma Press. It's VERY exciting, and quite imminent too. More to come soon!

Meanwhile, given I have nothing to show of my own today, it's time for some linky love!

Satsuma Press blog
As previously mentioned, this is Lynn's very new blog! Keep an eye on this one, I reckon there's going to be some good reads and very inspiring letterpress related stuff (if her first few posts are anything to go by!)


Milk & Cookies
A good uni buddy of mine, Tali. She's just started a post-grad animation course, and posts really cool illustrations in lots of different styles.



Kwoozy
The lovely Pei (Pei Pei?) who I got to meet in person at the Etsy meetup the other week! I really like her cute crafty stuff and felted toys :)



Hollabee
A Melbourne based 'Dutchy' who only recently started her craft blog but is already off to a flying start. Some lovely stuff coming out of this one :)



Blossom Creations
The lovely Erin, who kindly put together a little Japan travel guide for me (she lived there for 2.5 years). Anyway her blog is full of some very awesome stuff, and she recently released a range of patterned gift wrap and notebooks. Very cool!


And last but not least - another Etsy purchase! Man I love the impulse buying power of PayPal.


This is a crotcheted coral piece by Jess from jpolka.etsy.com. You can either buy the pattern or she can make them to order for a very reasonable price! I plan to put it in a shadow box frame like she has on her site.

Okay time to go attempt to be productive...

Threes

Well i'll be. Lovely blogger lusummers reminded me that good things come in threes, but when my work was featured on both crafty synergy AND the decor8 blog (!!) this week, I didn't really think that a third good thing was on it's way. But this morning I woke up to discover that it did indeed happen - Design*Sponge!! Thanks soooo much to all the lovely ladies for mentioning my fabric. I really do appreciate it.

Birch Forest

It's funny how sometimes the craft/design blog world can be simultaneously inspiring and petrifying.

Sometimes I look around and it feels like there's so many great ideas flying around out there and it's all too much. Not that long ago it seemed like there was a clear path and it was really obvious what would make a great design. Now it feels like a lot of those things have been "done", and there's a feeling (for me at least) of "where to next?".

Against my own advice I've also been putting more pressure on myself to come up with "the best design ever". I have all these ideas on the edge of my brain that I just can't seem to make come out right. I'm also trying to think of designs that can challenge the mediums and processes I have on hand. For example, I'd love to come up with a 2 colour screen print design where both colours can be printed off the same screen. I'd also love to be able to do an "inverse" print - where the design is made up of solid inked areas with gaps that form the design, rather than the other way around. This can be technically difficult though - because the printer prints the design in panels, you can get a double inked area where the panels overlap slightly.

Anyway that all said, below is a design that came to me this morning. It can work as as inverse print if the edges of the repeat go through the middle of a tree. I can just imagine a cushion made out of this :)



Only problem though is that it reminds me a lot of some other designs I've seen out there recently. Like Bird in the Hand's tree screen print or (scarily close to home) Auntie Cookie's home sweet home fabric. Am I being crazy? Tell me, honestly....