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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Polymer Clay with a Conscience

There is another uproar in the community about techniques...which ones are proprietary and which are not. In my opinion, no technique is proprietary...someone, somewhere has probably done it before. It would be impossible to say who owns any particular technique.

So, here are the rules that I live by in my PC life.

1. Do not publish (Internet or in print) or teach a technique that you learned directly from the artist (or even from someone else that learned it directly from the artist). Most likely they are teaching it and some of their income relies on it.

2. Reverse engineering something that you see is fine. Do not claim yourself as the "originator." Give credit to the artist that inspired you.

3. Do not ask an artist how they did something. If they want to share, they will.

4. If you see another artist's work and it inspires you to try something similar, put your own spin on it. Make every effort to be different.

5. Great minds *do* think alike. It's always possible that two (or more) people working with the medium will create similar pieces and think that their piece or technique is unique to them. Calling someone an "originator" is a confusing term.

6. Don't police the community. This kind of behavior can only alienate people that just want to learn. Let them.

7. If you publish a tutorial, be as sure as you can that no one else has published the same or nearly the same tutorial first. You don't want to be accused of riding other's coattails.

We're grown-ups, polymer clayers with a conscience don't need anyone telling them right from wrong. As another PC artist told me once..."The cream always rises to the top." :o)

I may change and edit this post as needed. This is just a start. If any of you think like I do and would like to make suggestions to anything I've posted, please let me know...

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Latest obsession :o)



This is what happened last week. I got a little carried away with the paint on a few of them....