Ripped off-Multiple Original Plug Artists
October 27th, 2009 by planetart
Ah.. Etsy, the new place to buy custom plugs and gauged jewelry.. and the new place to find designs to rip off! Myself and two other artists on Etsy are polymer clay plug and gauged jewelry artists. Our hard work and original designs are repeatedly copied by another Etsy newcomer to the polymer plug art Etsy scene.
Someone brought to my attention today (again) one of my unique designs….in another artist’s shop… again. This particular design was recently featured (Sept) on the front page of Etsy and is also featured in my blog (in which the offender has just started following coincidentally). I have contacted this artist and so have the other two polymer clay plug artists on Etsy. According to the other two members, she has refused to acknowledge this breach of etiquette to them. She did kindly take one of my designs down after I asked her to. She stated that she ‘just made them for a friend and decide to post them on Etsy too.” Stating “this design is so and so’s original design” does not make it appropriate to make money off of someone else’s hard work. Even though the copied artist is rarely credited in the listing. She makes GiovannaCoraggio designs, Grimbones Designs and BakedbyAsh’s designs and in some cases, sells them for less. Then claims she had no idea we had the same design. This weak defense does not hold up. I have actually had customers come to me and ask me why she has my design and if I’m going out of business. Below are a few examples:
Baked By Ash Original Design
(BakedbyAsh)
The Copy
The copy by Surferjen
GiovannaCoraggio Original Design (noted in post)
The Original
The Copy
The Copy
GrimBones Original Design
The Original
The Copy
The Copy
This is only a few! There are quite a few more. Go look for yourself. These are the ones she refuses to take down. I do not believe in coincidence over and over and over again, especially when her ‘designs’ come out a week after ours. One offender, who has since shut down said in reply to being confronted by another artist that “there is no stealing on Etsy!” I beg to differ.
(121 votes, average: 1.91 out of 5)
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not really seeing how any of this “original” to begin with.
You’re seriously complaining that someone ripped your design when you’ve ripped other people’s work? I’m speaking, of course, of the Jack Skellington face, of Nightmare Before Christmas fame, quite clearly illustrated in the second example.
I agree the second one is original, it has an added element design added to it. It sure is rude and maddening to see someone copy you, that’s a certainty.
On that note (sorry about the pun), I don’t see how a skinner blend coil and a musical treble clef are original. Both are symbols. I see those two all the time as pendants, brooches, earrings, so they aren’t really good examples. If they had an added design element to it (not the colour, but something more specific like the middle design, then Ya, that would be an infringement.
I saw an earthworm do the same spirally shape! *GASP*!!
GOD/MOTHER NATURE IS A COPYCAT!!!!
does not make it appropriate to make money off of someone else’s hard work.
I’d love to see you say this to Disney, 10th century composers and nature.
Your first example is extraordinarily weak. It’s a SPIRAL, and has been done in many forms, colours, and materials before. There is absolutely no way you came up with that idea first.
So you’re reproducing a koru, an important Maori symbol, and complaining that other’s are ripping off your “original” design.
give me a break
Yeah, I agree, none of these designs are really original. Also, am I the only one that thinks the copies look to be a little more well made than the originals? As someone else who works with polymer clay, I can tell the copies are a little smoother, and better shaped.
Oh, FFS. Anybody could reproduce these crappy little fimo plugs.
The idea of wearing polymer clay in piercings is more than a little bit squicky to me. It really doesn’t seem like the most hygienic jewelery material.
I am the artist that GiovannaCoraggio has taken the time to write this blog about and am gratified to see that several people see the same side as I do in this ostentatious outburst. I admit that I did make one of her designs for a friend but when the earrings didn’t fit her I posted them on etsy for a one time sale with complete credit given to her throughout the listing. When my Jack Skellington earrings came out she didn’t even have her shop active and mine were made from a drawing my best friend gave me to design my earrings from. I highly respect Gio and the other two polymer clay artists she listed in this blog and appreciate their passion for artistic expression. I in no way intend to “steal” anyone’s designs and as seen in my store, I also have my own “original” designs which I am sure someone out there has duplicated or created something similar. Hopefully these artists will be able to see my intent was not to copy them but only to create art that can be used as a form of self expression by others. I take pride in my work and hope that amends can be made. I think we are all unique in our creations that the few pieces that cross over in similarity should be considered flattering to ones self and creativity.
…ah the old “consider it flattering” line! Flatter to deceive more like. You’d do best in future to produce designs that are distinctly your own and don’t look like ‘inspirations’ or ‘homages’. Then you’ll avoid ‘misunderstandings’.
If I were you I’d go to Mother Nature herself as your prime source in future and not other designers you’ve seen on the web…
People still wear plus? Hhahahahhahahah ewe!
People still wear plugs? Hhahahahhahahah ewe!
cry me a fucking river, like you invented swirls. i ve seen these styles long before you
OMG you invented jack skellington? are you tim burton?
Is this the only way you could flush out a working mother whose livelihood you just joyously destroyed all because you want sellers and customers alike to pat you on your back for what you call original designs, as sampled on photos above? How selfish and cold of you to go overboard. What now? Do you honestly think this made you feel any better? G clefs, swirls, bend it there, tweak it there, it is and will always end up A SWIRL. And Tim Burton should be suing you for using his character. Animals, mythical beings in this form and design teems all over a lot of Internet stores not only in Etsy. I’ve seen 3 prestigious and BIGTIME online boutiques selling Tribal bone and wood jewelry only seeing 3 etsy sellers COPIED EVERY SINGLE DETAIL TO A TEE. Were their etsy stores brought down? No.
First of all, these designs weren’t that original in the first place.
Second of all, putting polymer clay in an earhole is a fucking terrible idea.
Thirdly, WOW you invented Jack Skellington AND the G-Clef??? That’s incredible! What an honor to meet such an original artist!
This post needs to be taken down because it’s bullshit. And I don’t know any of these sellers.
how the hell are you supposed to get the first jack skellington plug in your ear?
the orriginals are not very orriginal.
get a life
If I wanted to see Etsy drama, I’d be reading the Etsy forums. To the “original” artist — do you NOT realize that a vast percentage of art created by Etsy users is stuff created either USING or REPLICATING art that someone else created?? Even you are guilty of the same with the Jack Skellington, and implying that your clay spiral was just so original (NOT). It sounds like you need to get over yourself, and if you think you’re such an amazing artist, you should be rising above and creating things so much more unique, and then buying the proper rights for them so that blatant copying would not be so easy. I can’t believe I’m wasting my time writing to someone who wants to corner some market over clay spirals and “inspired” Jack Skellington earrings. It’s almost as bad as the Etsy sellers who all make the same scrabble piece Twilight pendants out of scans of the BOOK COVER! Grow up and get a real job, or better yourself as an artist.
this site used to have some great eye-opening entries, but now you’re resorting to this shite?
Dude, quality over quantity
Wait…. seriously? BakedByAsh seriously contends that the first picture constitutes an original design?
I have a pair of “yellowed silver” spirals credibly (curator) dated to the mid 19th century, and even then they could not be called “original”. I find it virtually impossible to believe that someone would honestly believe that a simple geometric form constitutes an original creation of their artistry. This is, if anything, an attempt to discredit a SLIGHTLY superior craftsperson (note the evenness of curvature in the “imitation” and its absence in the original).
The second piece has only slightly stronger claim to originality, utilizing a design form almost cliche in the faux-ethnic jewelry industry (the spiraled talon with plug front) with a commonly used third-party intellectual property (seriously, kids, the likeness of Jack Skellington is copyright protected, and YOU are not the copyright holder).
Third…. the Treble Clef. You are claiming to be the artist responsible for the creation of…. the Treble Clef.
These claims of infringement only undermine the credibility of the valuable public service you (apparently intermittently) provide.
Wow, you’re obviously full of yourself to consider everyone to be copying you. And including your own copyright-infringing design doesn’t help your credibility. How can someone be so blindly naive?
More respect for the accused, for sure.