Little Cotton Rabbits

Thank you

I just wanted to quickly thank everyone for leaving such kind comments on the previous post. It shouldn't happen to anyone - it's not nice to be reminded that not everyone surfing the internet has good intentions at heart. It is however something faced by most crafters creating individually styled work. It's demoralising but it definitely won't stop me from doing what I love.

Anyway, I shall go into the weekend feeling high as a kite by all of the supportive and complimentary things that you took the time to write. So here's wishing you a wonderful weekend from Penelope and me!

PS: Remember there is still a week until the close of the 2nd Annual Softie awards so there's still time to make your softie, photograph it and get it entered. I've entered Penelope in the pink or plaid section and there are 4 other categories too.

it shouldn't need saying...

...and I'm really sad that it obviously does but copying another person's work and selling it on as your own just isn't right. I really didn't want to bang on about it here as it seems a highly contentious issue but discussion about copyright has been cropping up in lots of blogs recently and I wanted to be clear on my views.

I have no problem in people copying the look of my toys for personal use or for gifts. Neither do I have a problem in people taking individual elements of my designs and incorporating them in their own - that is all part of the normal creative process. What I, and most other crafters find demoralising and depressing is recognisable* copies of our work being sold without our consent.

The reason I'm mentioning this now is that I've had several kind and concerned emails recently about toys similar to mine being sold. The most blatant example was this which was found on a russian website with a claim that the designs were their own and instructions of how to make them.

The copies...

My originals...

The lovely Barbara at Fuzzy Mitten has written up some of her views on copyright too - we've been comparing notes as recently some of her patterns have been adapted to copy some of my designs. I think her views are very similar to my own and really what we, and other crafters find upsetting is recognisable replicas of our work sold with a claim that it is someone else's.

Ok, getting off my soapbox now... and ending with a big thank you to everyone who has sent me concerned emails with links to copies of my toys. It's good to know that I have friends out there who are looking out for me.

PS: I've had lots of emails in the past about knitting up my free patterns to sell to raise money for charity and I always say a categorical yes - I'm really pleased if you want to use my free patterns for charity fundraising and I'll be trying to write up some more.

* Addition: I've changed the word above (see *) from exact to recognisable - as someone pointed out in an email the copies are never going to be exact. Thanks so much for all of the comments - will write a proper post tomorrow.

mess!

At the moment I can't think straight as our house is a tip. Our sun room is being gutted so is out of bounds, our dining room has disappeared under stacks of books and there are piles of homeless stuff everywhere.

I know it'll be worth it in the end though and I am very grateful to have a 'good-with-his-hands' husband - I'm just wishing we hadn't picked the school holidays to get started on this! Roll on next monday!

rainbow magic!

I find it really hard to keep both of my children entertained over the school holidays. There aren't many things that we can do all together as they both have such different needs. Today was great though as we spent a bit of time together while sorting out our art chest. Toby lined up coloured pens while Amy and I sorted through the drawer of broken crayons. For the last few years she's scorned crayons as babyish and so I thought we'd try out something that I originally saw on Rebecca's website (she has lots ideas for fun suff to do with children). Amy sorted and grouped the broken crayons

and then we gently baked them, chilled them and finally...

...yummy new crayons which almost look good enough to eat. We had great fun and recycled some cruddy crayon stubs into lovely new ones. I'm so chuffed to have found a good use for my silicone cupcake mould because the cakes I made in it did not emerge as heart-shaped - they came out in bits!

A winner and a big thank you

Goodness, I'm completely overwhelmed by the number of comments in the 200th post draw. It's lovely to know that the little cotton rabbits and I have so many friends out there! Thanks for all of the lovely comments that you left - I've really appreciated reading them. So, who won, who won?!!

Wellll....

I threw it open to atmospheric noise and a website that uses this to generate true random numbers.

and it gave me the number 175

So Congratulations to c. Rachel and many, many thanks again everyone for taking the time to leave a comment.

200th Post

I can't believe this has come around so quickly. When I first started I wasn't sure how long I'd stick at blogging but visiting other blogs and reading all of the wonderful comments that people leave here has become a really important part of my day. Thanks so much for visiting, leaving comments and for the encouragement and support that you offer me.

To celebrate I'd like to give away a toy at random so if you'd like to win it please just leave a comment below (just say Hi if nothing else comes to mind but be sure to leave a contact email). I'll leave this post up for the next week and then use a random generator thingy to pick a winner on Wednesday March 26th. The winner can then choose what regular sized toy they'd like me to make for them.

 

I've been playing with mice again this week and have made another prototype head with a pointier nose and completely pink ears. I think I'm happy with it at last, so mice are now on the menu!

 

Anyway have a wonderful Easter - eat lots of chocolate and don't forget to leave a comment below if you'd like to enter my giveaway.

The draw is now closed.