Monday, April 28, 2008

Orphan Works- Urgent Attention

I'm quite distressed by a bill that's been in congress for quite some time. From what I have gathered it protects the infringer. In other words, if someone has "stolen" your item and they cannot find who originally created it there is no protection for the artist who created it unless they register with the copyright office and pay the fees imposed. Can you imagine every time you create a piece of art, a technique, a piece of jewelry, your photography, your graphics, etc. etc, you have no recourse if the person who stole your work can prove they diligently searched for the owner but could not find them and therefore have a right to sell whatever they want because the work is considered orphaned. Bah Humbug!

Oh, I'm probably not explaining this as well as I should but frustration tends to stifle the flow of thought. There are several petitions against the passing of this idiotic bill but it isn't getting the attention it really should be getting in the art world so that it can be squashed.

Most artists barely make a living and who can afford all those copyright fees? Arghhhh. Sorry, but this just bothers the heck out of me.

Please consider this petition and sign.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/protect-artists-rights

More info can be found at:
http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/

http://www.orphanworks.net/index.html

http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/

http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html

Monday, April 14, 2008

Monday Monday

I woke up thinking "it's Monday" and this song came to mind so I thought I would share. Have a great day!

Monday, April 07, 2008

Getting Started

When I discovered polymer clay, it was a medium I had never used. It looked very promising and I decided I wanted to try it out. Well, lazy me. I checked out some vendor sites and ordered a package with several colors. After all one color seemed boring. LOL

My package arrived quickly so like a kid I tore into it. I loved the colors and the feel of the clay. All of a sudden all kinds of "big" ideas popped up in my head but I didn't write them down. Needless to say I have no idea to this day what those ideas were. For all I know, they could have been really good...or bad. LOL

I really procrastinated picking up the clay and just doing it. I didn't want to waste it so I spent several days just thinking about it. Then I spent several days surfing the net, looking at what other artists had done and checking out the tutorials. Now I was at a total loss for inspiration so here I go to the book sites to see what I could find. Oh, I found some and then I ordered them.
More procrastination! LOL I finally got the books and spent quite a bit of time looking through them. I loved what I saw. I also noticed that many of the instructions were quite close to the ones I found on the web. I still didn't start. Really silly of me too because I didn't intend to buy it just to look at it. That is what I was doing though.

Finally I decided to just try it and see what happens. I pretty much prefer instant gratification so a large project was not in the cards. I wanted to see what this stuff does and I wanted to see now. LOL Well I took 3 colors, red, white and green...it was Christmas time. I played with them a while. That was called conditioning. I cleaned out one of my medicine bottles and started applying it just willy nilly.

So my first project was not a masterpiece but that was alright. I was starting to work with it and that was the whole point.




The bottle on the top left is my first project. After that I cleaned some more bottles and started playing with canes and techniques. I even moved on to making a pinch pot (upper right).

When I look back on those days, I wonder why it was so hard to get started. I do know I had a lot of negatives hitting me up side my head and I shouldn't have been listening to them. After all you can't have the experience if you don't do something about it.

Life gets that way sometimes. I shoulda, woulda, coulda but didn't. Many times I've gone through procrastinating about something only to realize it was much better just to do it. I did the same thing starting this blog. Why do some people do that? Well, now that it's in black and white staring me in the face, I'll just have to do something about it. More doing and less thinking about it.

Is there something you want to do but just spend time thinking about it? Well, now is the time to stop thinking and get doing.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Ethics

There is a lot of controversy in the art world concerning infringements and copyrights. It's nothing new, however, it is important to remain courteous and respectful of other artists' work. The National Polymer Clay Guild has a post called Rules to Live By and I think it's worth reading.

http://tinyurl.com/356g90