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Non-Legal Ways To Address Copying Issue


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How about "sharing" your info but make it all incorrect thereby sending them on a big huge waste of time failure!

I cannot see how that would improve the studio sharing situation.

 

How about "sharing" your info but make it all incorrect thereby sending them on a big huge waste of time failure!

I cannot see how that would improve the studio sharing situation.

 

 

But it could be infinitely satisfying, specially when she keeps producing crap and wondering why.

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Bring a bottle of wine to the studio, ask her and the other studio mate to share in your celebration of getting a copyright on you translucent paperclay formula . . . the copier doesn't have to know you haven't really done so, but it will definitely let her know she can't copy anymore without "paying" royalties.

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Perhaps a bottle of wine with all teh studio participants to discuss what is working and not working in this shared space.... Must be many positives for you all.

This could lead to the taker feeling unethical awkward and in need of a new space.

If this is done in a non threatening, non angry manner with everyone's input then something may be resolved. Put it out in the open, daylight often brimgs clarity.

If the taker is taking from you I will bet a glass or two she is also taking from others.

But sometimes we are in the giver role and sometimes in the taker, that's life.

A potter I knew, now deceased along with her many splendid glazes, always put the wrong recipe on her buckets, 2 book system, but again energy expenditure. She went to the grave with her recipes, a winner ???

On rereading all the above, at the meeting be downright forthright, sounds like SHE has to go. Totally unethical, yes, leave wrong recipes around.... Hmmm

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>A potter I knew, now deceased along with her many splendid glazes, always put the wrong recipe on her buckets, 2 book system, but again energy expenditure. She went to the grave with her recipes, a winner ???<

 

Then there is "Malcolm's Shino" in studios all over the world ... You can't hear the name without seeing the smile of a generous, funny and sharing guy ... Sadly gone from us too quickly.

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Guest JBaymore

If I spend any more time thinking about it, then I'm just doing what they want me to do: think about them.

 

Back to .... "Stay Calm and Make More Work."

 

best,

 

...................john

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Sounds like you have not actually sat down and had a really direct conversation with your studio mate on this issue. I get that you resisted offering help and then really said "no" but have you actually spent some time discussing this with her. I am trying to see your side and I understand you feel violated but I'm not sure I see a solution that will not require some compromise on your part as well.

 

You have a paper clay process that you use on some of your work that took you a long time to perfect. She is at a stage where she feels she needs to use a paper clay process on an aspect of her work. She asked you for your help and you declined because it took you a long time to develop your process, fair enough. At this point she started experimenting on her own and you feel she is mimicking your process.

 

Is she doing this by observing you do it or just looking at your finished work? Are you positive she is not doing her own R&D?

 

What do you want her to do exactly? As Babs suggested, maybe ask for a meeting between you and her and a neutral person from the studio and lay out your case and try and convince her you are right and she should not use your process on her work. ( I like the wine suggestion :))

 

She's doing this because she feels she needs to for her work and she likely feels it is OK. She is probably not going to stop and you are just going to get more and more angry. A straight up conversation about it would at least clear the air and you both would come away knowing how the other feels about the situation and that's half way toward a solution right there. Perhaps there is a compromise that can be worked out. One key thing is that this not about you and its not about her, its about both of you and the solution has to work for both of you.

 

I would also suggest standing back a little and truly try to evaluate your work and make sure your feelings are justified. Is this a process that you personally came up with and is truly unique or one that is common that just took a lot of time and research to connect the dots and learn how to do. There are a lot of very cool processes out there that have been around for eons and just being the first to adapt them in a studio or geographic area does not mean other artist shouldn't pursue them as well.

 

I guess I am saying make sure you are not trying to assume ownership of a process that is not yours. 

 

Whatever you do, don't spend wonderful studio time being angry and try not to mess up her time as well.

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I went to your website and you do have lovely work. But the flower forms are identical to some I bought from a friend in Italy. Porcelain paper clay by Antionella Cimatti

I think it is merely coincidence. My friend is an instructor of design, has won awards at the Korean International shows, and it is a simple flower form. She makes these in various sizes and puts them into various constructions as well as uses them in jewelry.She has nice hand made boxes for them. 

And she has been in ceramics for decades. So how would you respond to someone making extremely similar forms and probably before you made them. Sometimes, nothing is new in clay.

 

Marcia

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post-1954-0-76833300-1405551204_thumb.jpg

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After your 2 'No's, has she dug through your things in your absence, looked over your shoulder, taken pic of your pieces in process, or has she started her own R+D on what produced your results?  If it's the former, she is who needs to not be in a shared space.  If it's the later, anyone who bought one of your pieces and admired it could be working to figure out how it was done.

I was in a group space for years.  I pod ear buds, and folding screens made it workable until other's fingerprints started showing up on pieces coming out of the common kilns that everyone shared the loading of.  That was when I knew It was time to find a way to have my own studio. I sometimes miss the good parts of communal work spaces, but more often I appreciate the private space and meeting other potters at outside functions.

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Energy, both physical and creative, is a valuable commodity.  Letting this conflict suck energy away from what you want to be doing is much more harmful to you than her.  Make your peace with the notion that she can and will continue on her path, and you can either aid her and have some input into how she adapts the process/product to fit her own needs, or you can squander your time and energy trying to prevent the unpreventable.  I would share with her but then, I am a teacher by occupation as well as by nature, and can't keep a secret to save myself.  If I know it, I have to share it.  Collaboration is the lifeblood of education.  If I am excited about it, I feel the urge to share it all the more.  One of the things I enjoy the most about the clay arts is the willingness of potters to share.  A simple example of that is this forum.  Or, like others have suggested, move to a singular studio situation.  

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The patent process is really geared against these types of situations. Even if you invested in a patent and lawyered up, it could be a loosing enterprise. I've had big problems with people copying off my work (not in the ceramics field) and it is draining to see people undercut you in the market with shabby knock offs of your own work.

 

Best advice I can give is be above it all. As someone else stated, generally people who pull these tactics lack success and are struggling with a lack of self security and identity. Keep working, keep innovating, and be self satisfied. If this person is being so pushy and secretive, they many also just be a cage rattler: they want to get under your skin and sap from your successes, and if you are bothered and it stymies your work, you have let them win.

 

Don't let jerks get you down.

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