The Summer 2014 Issue: Let There Be Light

The Summer 2014 issue is just about done. It is presently due to be released the first week of June. Here we have a sneak preview of the cover with a bright, reflective necklace by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre:

14-P2 Summer-Light Rgt Cover MEd

 

You can look forward to a ton of great, in-depth articles–

  • Designing with Light in Mind
  • Creating the Illusion of Light
  • Luminous Landscapes Technique
  • Luscious Liquid Clay Glazes
  • Putting Sealants to the Test
  • Lighten up: Taking the Weight out of Big Beads
  • Controlling Photographic Light
  • Grabbing the Internet Spotlight
  • The Mobile Polymer Studio
  • The Clay Report: What’s new, what’s best, what’s out there.
  • They Love Me Not: Creating Success from Failures
  • … and more!

We just sent out renewal notices so if you got that, don’t hold off renewing any longer. The mailing list for you to get the issue when it is first mailed out will be put together this coming week so renew and get it first!

www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscription_ordering.html

We’ll resume our exploration of cellular formations in the next post today!

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   polymer clay overlapping cane   14P1 cover Fnl

What Your Customers Are Buying

March 2, 2014

Edit to Post:

It’s almost funny how the posted quote image here not only highlights the issue of copying but is, as it turns out, a derivation of someone’s words (unattributed in the image as you might note.) I was able to find someone who gave Rebekah Joy Plett the credit for the quote so I could give credit but then Tracy Holmes sent me a Facebook post she found from the artist on this and the original words. I am posting Rebekah’s original words here but am not taking the prior quote image down because it is the link to this post for the email notifications (which will allow people to come here and see the correction) and so that you can help notify others of the misappropriation. If you see the second image below, please let the post person know about the original quote posted by Rebekah here: http://goo.gl/kRCxD7.

Okay here is the actual original quote:

902390_10151836575066053_974790476_o

And here is my original post:

I was going to make this a short and sweet post today, just a good quote to give you a little something to consider. But there has been quite the conversation online about a subject that this quote poignantly highlights. So first, read this nice little letter to the potential customer. The sentiment is fantastic.

1480704_10152042623062095_2047117304_n

Words by artist Rebekah Joy Plett … “You are buying a piece of heart, a part of a soul …” Great words, not just for the buyer to hear but for the creator to consider as well. Are you actually selling part of your heart or soul? Or are you selling someone else’s?

Yes, we are touching on the subject of copying here as well as giving credit. Over at the “Ask Harriete” blog, there is quite the conversation going on the subject and I have had several people ask me where I stand or what I think about it. Since I too have been having a lot of conversations concerning this subject in the last couple months, I actually have quite a bit to say but not in the same vein as what Harriete is discussing.

My conversations have primarily revolved around how to clarify what is stealing due to the upcoming release of an article in the Spring 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts. The article is titled “Stealing Talent”. Linda Stiles Smith bravely agreed to interview a number of artists for me , artists who teach and/or publish and regularly have their ideas appropriated–sometimes copied, sometimes worked by others into their own original pieces.  In an effort to try and clarify what it means to copy and how to properly use what we learn from each other, we created a summary of what the artists interviewed said. Here’s a bit of a sneak peek that will also give you a chance to chime in on the subject since there isn’t a response option in a magazine:

Rules for Giving Credit
1. Do not teach a class or tutorial that someone else has developed presenting it as your own.
2. Do not directly copy someone’s design and call it your own – for any reason.
3. Do not copy and sell printed images or materials, tutorials, books, techniques of another artist.

I also chimed in with a few thoughts of my own. Here is the abbreviated version:

As for when to give credit, consider whether what you are using is design or technique.

Design is the art. It belongs to the creator.
This includes the choices one makes about form, color combinations, line, pattern, etc., as well as the combination of these choices. So, you do not copy someone’s designs—that is their art and their voice as an artist.

Techniques are like tools in your tool box.
This is the how-to aspect of working in the material. You don’t need to list where your ‘tools’ originated when you sell something, but if you are teaching or posting your work you have an obligation to say where you your ‘technique tools’ came from. It would be unfair to keep aspiring clayers from being able to access the original source and it repays that artist for giving you the tool to work with.

I know this last paragraph has the potential to create some controversy because I do not say you do not have the right to teach or use a technique that another person has created. In the legal sense, you can. There is no copyright on technique (See rules 1 & 3 above as well). The gray areas comes not with someone using a technique but in HOW they use.

If an artist develops a technique and always applies it to a flat round pendant, someone making a square pendant would still be copying. However, if you see an artist apply the technique only to round beads and someone else uses the technique but creates square beads, most of us would recognize that it’s not quite stealing the design. Why? Because we recognize that creating a round bead requires a different technique than creating a square one and would likely require a variation on the application of the original artist’s technique, requiring different design and aesthetic choices. This doesn’t work for the pendant application because there is no difference in how the technique would be applied if all you are doing is choosing another shaped cutter.

Now, I in no way advocate taking someone’s work and just changing one aspect so you can call it your own. It doesn’t work that way–its still not your own. Read the quote above again if this concept of when it is not copying is unclear. If you are not making something that is of you–if all you are doing is borrowing from others–you aren’t making art, you are just reproducing and what you create is not that much different than any commercial product. If you are not making your own work, you are not giving your buyers the one thing that makes your work so much more valuable than a mass produced product … that little bit of yourself that imbues an object with meaning and personal connection. That is what buyers are paying for when buying art and handmade work. Don’t cheat your buyers. And just as important, don’t cheat yourself.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Preparing for the New Year

December 29, 2013 ,

9dbdb467e5cd7a8622112cc3794a4902

I suggest focusing on the studio rather than the bank accounts!

In these days between Christmas and New Years, it is a great time to go through your studio, clean it out, and get yourself organized so you can start out the New Year fresh. Go through unfinished projects and decide which you are confident you will complete, and which you need to be resigned to never finishing, tossing them out or recycling them if you can. Go through your supplies and tools and make a list of what you need to replace or stock up on. Then you know what to use those gift cards and Christmas money for! And with after Christmas sales, you can make that money go farther … a lot farther. It will feel really good to start out clean, stocked and organized in the studio for 2014!

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

Cover 13-P4 web  120113 snowflake display ad  WhimsicalBead051512

Making Friends with Failure

December 22, 2013

This is a bit longer installment than I usually have on Sunday but I think this strip by Stephen McCranie explains so well how silly it is for us to be so hard on ourselves, to expect perfection in every piece we create, and to miss out on the lessons we can learn from our imperfect creations. It is well worth the read. Click on the image here to see the entire strip. Enjoy.

BeFriendswithFailure0005

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

Cover 13-P4 web  120113 snowflake display ad  WhimsicalBead051512

Shininess is Catching

December 15, 2013

lightshine

 

I don’t know that I need to add anything here. This is as simple as being enthusiastic about your creative endeavors or any other other myriad of wonderful things in your life. Smile and others will smile with you. Laugh and others will laugh along. Strive to do better in everything you do and you will inspire others to do the same.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partne

Cover 13-P4 web  120113 snowflake display ad  WhimsicalBead051512

A True Sense of Order

August 11, 2013

Powell River Quote

 

Why do we, with all our yearning for the latest technology, for the clean and controlled, for the precise and permanent, find ourselves drawn to nature? I think John Burroughs has it right. For all the time we spend trying to control our world, I think we find true order and peace only in the random, cycling, uncontrollable but dependable elements in nature. Nature is where we are all from, and where we will return; and unlike anything we humans think up, is the one thing that always makes sense.

Faux is Fun … unless it’s You

May 19, 2013

Just a little faux-ish quote to end our faux week. I can’t say I try to be normal too often. It’s reaaaally hard to maintain!

boring-normal-pretend-quote-Favim.com-530448

 

On Speaking and Listening

May 5, 2013

I don’t think this needs explaining but most days, it needs remembering. It even applies to showing and viewing art, critiquing art and supporting our community.

3608_303017463145584_2091793026_n

I hope you all have a lovely Spring Sunday.

Awesomely Simple Creativity

April 20, 2013

The quote below came to mind when I got, for the third time in as many weeks, a kind note from a reader telling me how much they enjoy the blog even though they don’t always agree with what I say. I so enjoy these comments. It means people are stopping to think.

I certainly can’t claim that what I say is “right” or gospel in any manner. We are talking about art here–a subjective matter with many right answers. The fun part is actually being deemed “wrong” and having people stop to say so. It means that whatever was said, whatever was done, was interesting enough to make someone stop and consider. And at the end of the day, that is truly the purpose of art, even when (or especially when) the observer thinks it should have been done differently.

quotes

The Summer 2014 Issue: Let There Be Light

May 16, 2014
Posted in ,

The Summer 2014 issue is just about done. It is presently due to be released the first week of June. Here we have a sneak preview of the cover with a bright, reflective necklace by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre:

14-P2 Summer-Light Rgt Cover MEd

 

You can look forward to a ton of great, in-depth articles–

  • Designing with Light in Mind
  • Creating the Illusion of Light
  • Luminous Landscapes Technique
  • Luscious Liquid Clay Glazes
  • Putting Sealants to the Test
  • Lighten up: Taking the Weight out of Big Beads
  • Controlling Photographic Light
  • Grabbing the Internet Spotlight
  • The Mobile Polymer Studio
  • The Clay Report: What’s new, what’s best, what’s out there.
  • They Love Me Not: Creating Success from Failures
  • … and more!

We just sent out renewal notices so if you got that, don’t hold off renewing any longer. The mailing list for you to get the issue when it is first mailed out will be put together this coming week so renew and get it first!

www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscription_ordering.html

We’ll resume our exploration of cellular formations in the next post today!

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   polymer clay overlapping cane   14P1 cover Fnl

Read More

What Your Customers Are Buying

March 2, 2014
Posted in

Edit to Post:

It’s almost funny how the posted quote image here not only highlights the issue of copying but is, as it turns out, a derivation of someone’s words (unattributed in the image as you might note.) I was able to find someone who gave Rebekah Joy Plett the credit for the quote so I could give credit but then Tracy Holmes sent me a Facebook post she found from the artist on this and the original words. I am posting Rebekah’s original words here but am not taking the prior quote image down because it is the link to this post for the email notifications (which will allow people to come here and see the correction) and so that you can help notify others of the misappropriation. If you see the second image below, please let the post person know about the original quote posted by Rebekah here: http://goo.gl/kRCxD7.

Okay here is the actual original quote:

902390_10151836575066053_974790476_o

And here is my original post:

I was going to make this a short and sweet post today, just a good quote to give you a little something to consider. But there has been quite the conversation online about a subject that this quote poignantly highlights. So first, read this nice little letter to the potential customer. The sentiment is fantastic.

1480704_10152042623062095_2047117304_n

Words by artist Rebekah Joy Plett … “You are buying a piece of heart, a part of a soul …” Great words, not just for the buyer to hear but for the creator to consider as well. Are you actually selling part of your heart or soul? Or are you selling someone else’s?

Yes, we are touching on the subject of copying here as well as giving credit. Over at the “Ask Harriete” blog, there is quite the conversation going on the subject and I have had several people ask me where I stand or what I think about it. Since I too have been having a lot of conversations concerning this subject in the last couple months, I actually have quite a bit to say but not in the same vein as what Harriete is discussing.

My conversations have primarily revolved around how to clarify what is stealing due to the upcoming release of an article in the Spring 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts. The article is titled “Stealing Talent”. Linda Stiles Smith bravely agreed to interview a number of artists for me , artists who teach and/or publish and regularly have their ideas appropriated–sometimes copied, sometimes worked by others into their own original pieces.  In an effort to try and clarify what it means to copy and how to properly use what we learn from each other, we created a summary of what the artists interviewed said. Here’s a bit of a sneak peek that will also give you a chance to chime in on the subject since there isn’t a response option in a magazine:

Rules for Giving Credit
1. Do not teach a class or tutorial that someone else has developed presenting it as your own.
2. Do not directly copy someone’s design and call it your own – for any reason.
3. Do not copy and sell printed images or materials, tutorials, books, techniques of another artist.

I also chimed in with a few thoughts of my own. Here is the abbreviated version:

As for when to give credit, consider whether what you are using is design or technique.

Design is the art. It belongs to the creator.
This includes the choices one makes about form, color combinations, line, pattern, etc., as well as the combination of these choices. So, you do not copy someone’s designs—that is their art and their voice as an artist.

Techniques are like tools in your tool box.
This is the how-to aspect of working in the material. You don’t need to list where your ‘tools’ originated when you sell something, but if you are teaching or posting your work you have an obligation to say where you your ‘technique tools’ came from. It would be unfair to keep aspiring clayers from being able to access the original source and it repays that artist for giving you the tool to work with.

I know this last paragraph has the potential to create some controversy because I do not say you do not have the right to teach or use a technique that another person has created. In the legal sense, you can. There is no copyright on technique (See rules 1 & 3 above as well). The gray areas comes not with someone using a technique but in HOW they use.

If an artist develops a technique and always applies it to a flat round pendant, someone making a square pendant would still be copying. However, if you see an artist apply the technique only to round beads and someone else uses the technique but creates square beads, most of us would recognize that it’s not quite stealing the design. Why? Because we recognize that creating a round bead requires a different technique than creating a square one and would likely require a variation on the application of the original artist’s technique, requiring different design and aesthetic choices. This doesn’t work for the pendant application because there is no difference in how the technique would be applied if all you are doing is choosing another shaped cutter.

Now, I in no way advocate taking someone’s work and just changing one aspect so you can call it your own. It doesn’t work that way–its still not your own. Read the quote above again if this concept of when it is not copying is unclear. If you are not making something that is of you–if all you are doing is borrowing from others–you aren’t making art, you are just reproducing and what you create is not that much different than any commercial product. If you are not making your own work, you are not giving your buyers the one thing that makes your work so much more valuable than a mass produced product … that little bit of yourself that imbues an object with meaning and personal connection. That is what buyers are paying for when buying art and handmade work. Don’t cheat your buyers. And just as important, don’t cheat yourself.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14P1 cover Fnl   PCW blue string art cane   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-2

Read More

Preparing for the New Year

December 29, 2013
Posted in ,

9dbdb467e5cd7a8622112cc3794a4902

I suggest focusing on the studio rather than the bank accounts!

In these days between Christmas and New Years, it is a great time to go through your studio, clean it out, and get yourself organized so you can start out the New Year fresh. Go through unfinished projects and decide which you are confident you will complete, and which you need to be resigned to never finishing, tossing them out or recycling them if you can. Go through your supplies and tools and make a list of what you need to replace or stock up on. Then you know what to use those gift cards and Christmas money for! And with after Christmas sales, you can make that money go farther … a lot farther. It will feel really good to start out clean, stocked and organized in the studio for 2014!

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

Cover 13-P4 web  120113 snowflake display ad  WhimsicalBead051512

Read More

Making Friends with Failure

December 22, 2013
Posted in

This is a bit longer installment than I usually have on Sunday but I think this strip by Stephen McCranie explains so well how silly it is for us to be so hard on ourselves, to expect perfection in every piece we create, and to miss out on the lessons we can learn from our imperfect creations. It is well worth the read. Click on the image here to see the entire strip. Enjoy.

BeFriendswithFailure0005

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

Cover 13-P4 web  120113 snowflake display ad  WhimsicalBead051512

Read More

Shininess is Catching

December 15, 2013
Posted in

lightshine

 

I don’t know that I need to add anything here. This is as simple as being enthusiastic about your creative endeavors or any other other myriad of wonderful things in your life. Smile and others will smile with you. Laugh and others will laugh along. Strive to do better in everything you do and you will inspire others to do the same.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partne

Cover 13-P4 web  120113 snowflake display ad  WhimsicalBead051512
Read More

A True Sense of Order

August 11, 2013
Posted in

Powell River Quote

 

Why do we, with all our yearning for the latest technology, for the clean and controlled, for the precise and permanent, find ourselves drawn to nature? I think John Burroughs has it right. For all the time we spend trying to control our world, I think we find true order and peace only in the random, cycling, uncontrollable but dependable elements in nature. Nature is where we are all from, and where we will return; and unlike anything we humans think up, is the one thing that always makes sense.

Read More

Faux is Fun … unless it’s You

May 19, 2013
Posted in

Just a little faux-ish quote to end our faux week. I can’t say I try to be normal too often. It’s reaaaally hard to maintain!

boring-normal-pretend-quote-Favim.com-530448

 

Read More

On Speaking and Listening

May 5, 2013
Posted in

I don’t think this needs explaining but most days, it needs remembering. It even applies to showing and viewing art, critiquing art and supporting our community.

3608_303017463145584_2091793026_n

I hope you all have a lovely Spring Sunday.

Read More

Awesomely Simple Creativity

April 20, 2013
Posted in

The quote below came to mind when I got, for the third time in as many weeks, a kind note from a reader telling me how much they enjoy the blog even though they don’t always agree with what I say. I so enjoy these comments. It means people are stopping to think.

I certainly can’t claim that what I say is “right” or gospel in any manner. We are talking about art here–a subjective matter with many right answers. The fun part is actually being deemed “wrong” and having people stop to say so. It means that whatever was said, whatever was done, was interesting enough to make someone stop and consider. And at the end of the day, that is truly the purpose of art, even when (or especially when) the observer thinks it should have been done differently.

quotes

Read More
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