I was a little shocked to read an article that reported a beader on YouTube had posted a video stating that once a beading design is printed in a magazine, readers have the right to use free reign with the design and make it up for re-sale, teach it etc. Happily the article went on to explain that this is definitely not the case: the various copyright acts passed throughout the world make it clear that the originator of the design has the sole right to control how the design is used. The designer may be happy for others to teach the project or make it up and sell it, but the point is, if you are going to do this, you need to get the designer’s written permission first.
Of course Copyright law is actually pretty complicated and can also be difficult to enforce. One of my facebook followers recently emailed me a link to a Russian website that was using a photo of one of my wedding bouquets, suggesting that the owner of the website was claiming to have made the bouquet herself. I took a look: certainly there was nothing to credit me with the design, but since I couldn’t understand the Russian, I still don’t know whether all the beadwork (there was a lot of it!) on the site was simply a collection of things that the website owner liked, or whether she was claiming to have made them and probably infringing the copyright of a lot of designers. On the one hand it is very flattering to have my work posted around the world by people who like it, but I’m less impressed if they try and take the credit for it. Naturally this is going to become a bigger and bigger problem: it’s very easy to re-post photos online, but few people talk – or think – about the etiquette of crediting them. I’ve just joined Pinterest where the whole point is to create a network where people are expressing themselves visually through the things that appeal to them. From my point of view, it gives me the opportunity to showcase some of my work and increase my exposure, but it’s also a great design tool for me. When I have an idea, for example beaded chocolate eclairs, the first thing I do is google for photos of the object so that I can work out how to make them from beads. Traditionally I’ve printed out lots of photos and then stashed them until I’m ready to work out the design. I’ve now realised, I can collect them on my Pinterest board and save a few rainforests of trees by reducing my printing in the process!
Back to design and copyright: it’s not as black and white as it sounds. Beading stitches are not copyrighted – anyone can use them or teach them without requesting permission – it is the way in which they are used that is critical. However, when you start thinking about colour and bead size, things start to get interesting. If I make someone else’s project using completely different coloured beads to the ones they recommend, I’m starting to overlay my own design onto the piece, so does it then become mine to sell and teach? If it’s just a colour change, then the answer is probably ‘no’ since the design itself is still recognisable as the work of someone else. If I start to change bead sizes, it becomes more interesting still. I may find that I have to make a few alterations to the design to make it work, so is it now my design? Complicated isn’t it? For many years I made it a deliberate policy to never make up a beading project from a book or magazine. I wanted to find my own style and I was afraid that I would end up inadvertently reproducing something that actually belonged to another designer. I think it is easy to stitch a project, become used to combining beads in that way and then find that style has crept into what should be a unique design that I’m making a couple of weeks later. I haven’t meant to copy, but my brain has reproduced something it learnt previously and here I am trying to create something new!
I’ve gradually realised however, that artists need to work in communities and feed off one another. I was fascinated to go to a brilliant exhibition on the artist J.M.W.Turner in 2010. It showed a huge range of his work all hung next to masterpieces by other artists from whom he had taken inspiration. In some cases ‘inspiration’ had meant literally ‘copying’: Turner had seen the painting of a scene and thought that he could paint the same scene better or with a different perspective. So, two paintings that were essentially the same subject looked entirely different due to the effects of light or brushstrokes which differed from artist to artist. At this point I was hit by how much we can learn from trying other people’s techniques – it gives a new perspective which I think is essential to continuing to grow in design terms. Take my ‘Emerald Romance’ necklace: I received a green button from a charity in return for a donation. I think it was in the form of a pin which I thought I would never realistically wear, but I liked it, so decided to remove the pin from the back and bezel around it so I could wear it as a pendant. Around the same time, I had acquired a copy of Lisa Kan’s book, ‘Bead Romantique’ which is full of beautiful designs. Much as I love them, I have never actually made a full piece from the book, but I did start playing around with different stitches, one of which became the green and gold strip of embellishment I placed either side of my new Bezelled pendant. I found that, beautiful as this stitch looked, it took a long time to work up. Being a little lazy, I stopped with just a short length of it and then strung the rest of the necklace with emerald Swarovskis and so I had a new necklace!
So yes, copying is a form of flattery, but stealing is not. A community of beaders is a great place to inhabit for inspiration, but as with much in life, it is also about respect and sharing. Anyone who is kind enough to share their ideas with the rest of us deserves that we respect and credit their designs.
