This has me STEAMED!

This has me (insert bad word) STEAMED!!!!

An artist, (John T. Unger), a maker of sculptural fire-bowls made from recycled steel, is being sued by an imitator of his work to overturn his registered copyrights. I am using the term imitator specifically, as FirePitArt.Com LLC is not claiming the firepits they are manufacturing are in any way substantially different than John Unger's even in their lawsuit filing, as far as I can tell.

Waves O' Fire, from John Unger's site

Mr. Unger sent them a cease-and-desist letter, which was flatly refused. After several exchanges between legal counsels, Fire Pit Art filed suit claiming Mr. Unger's copyrights were invalid, and that Mr. Unger had damaged their business by informing businesses and arts organizations with which they had dealings of the controversy regarding the copyright of the designs, a practice which (from observation-I have no supporting documentation) seems to be common and legal in cases like this.

Now this upsets me at least in part because it appears to be a case in which a company or individual is trying to use the courts to strong-arm an artist out of their copyright protections, hoping the artist will be too intimidated or financially unable to fight the suit, which would result in a summary judgement against the artist.

This seems to be an all too common occurrence apparently, judging by other cases I have heard of, and ones which numerous bloggers and their commentators are mentioning.

But as I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that what is truly insidious about this case is that they are trying to use the courts to overturn his right to determine if his work is in fact 'art' in the first place!

Specifically, Fire Pit Art is, among other things, suing to have the courts declare that John Unger's work is NOT art, due to the fact that they are functional items.

According to the complaint filed by Rick Wittrig, owner of Fire Pit Art (available on the artist's webpage linked above):

"Defendant has continued to assert his allegations of copyright infringement, further basing them on the registrations of copyright claims made by Defendant...for a number of articles that are in fact outdoor fire pits, but were registered by the Copyright Office as “Sculpture/3-D Design,” on the basis of Defendant’s claims and representations." p. 3-4

and;

"Defendant’s Fire Pits are functional, utilitarian and useful articles that are not
subject to copyright protection under The Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq." p. 5 (the law covering economic and proprietary rights of authors/artists)

The complaint seeks to have the registered copyrights cancelled on the basis that the fire-pits are not art and are therefore improperly registered. But it's more than the cancellation of the copyright registration.

If I have understood American copyright law correctly, an artist is NOT required to register a copyright to a piece of intellectual property in order to retain a legal copyright to it. It's a good idea to do so, as it can provide weighty evidence of that copyright, but it's not mandatory in order to legally own copyright on it.*

*Candid admission: My understanding of US copyright law in these matter is from reading about cases like this, and from online discussions and articles written by artists, writers, publishers, gallery administrators and agents, usually written to inform new writers and artists what copyright protections they have, and what responsibility they have toward retaining them. I'm not American and have not as yet felt the urge to read any official documents on the subject, though it's on my 'to do' list.

This is supposition on my part, but if Fire Pit Art can convince the jury/judge that John Unger's work is not art, then it can contend that he had no automatic copyright to it to begin with. And it sets a precedent in law (in a legal system that works in large part on precedent) that an artist does not have the legal right to determine if their work is, in fact, 'Art'.

(What makes the whole thing hypocritical is that not only does Mr. Wittrig call his company "Fire Pit Art", he publicly represents himself as an artist, and sells his knock-offs of Mr. Unger's work at Art fairs!)

(John Unger) has set up a webpage going into greater detail about this, and has decided to fight the matter in court, but he could use some financial help. There are fundraising details at his site. (Discounted Fire-bowls! Art in exchange for donations!) :)

We don't get the inspiration we want

Apparently we don't get the inspiration we want, we get the inspiration we need. Much like cats.*

And oh great, look, it's WRITING inspiration. I'm supposed to be doing ART right now.

Good thing the inspiration node in my brain is a cute little mass of grey matter, or I'd kick it in the ankle.

Happily, one rough outline, some details around a couple of bits of action and a few key lines of dialog are done, and I think I understand the purpose of two of the characters.

Also one hell of a case of epiphany whiplash...Oh, good morning world, I'm going to bed!



*Or is that the cats we deserve?

That's an ...interesting... future

Neil Gaiman has an odd little thing....an online Oracle. (I notice it has one of Lisa Snellings' poppets living in it....)

My future? And I quote- "11."

That's it.

"11."

Sigh.

I tried it again, to see if perhaps it was a bit confused as to what I was asking, and it's response was: "The dog."

I do not have a dog. The cats won't let me. I do not argue with the cats.

Crewel Work

WHEEEEEEE!!!! I learned crewel embroidery!!!!

I thought, you know, I LOVE embroidery, and I can think of scads of stuff I could do with it in my art, but I never seem to actually use more than a few different stitches; mostly because those are the ones I feel comfortable with. And yet I have several books full of stitches that I KNOW I could do if I tried, I just never bother. I look at the diagrams and say "yeah, I could do that one, that's easy", but when I actually plan out an embroidered piece I go right back to the ones I know, because I KNOW how they would look, and would work on a piece.

So I set myself the task last week of trying out every stitch in Erica Wilson's "Crewel Embroidery", 1962 (except the ones I already knew how to do and do frequently...)

This is all of them.



1. Close Buttonhole Stitch
2. Coral Stitch
3. Braid Stitch
4. Rope Stitch (narrow-left, broad-right)
5. Rosette Stitch (right (red)-poorly done, left (peach), better)
6. Roumanian Stitch
7. Cretan Stitch
8. Vandyke Stitch (top (peach)-line, bottom (red)-shape)
9. Knotted Pearl Stitch
10. Fishbone Stitch
11. Raised Stem Stitch
12. Raised Chain Stitch
13. Raised Buttonhole Stitch
14. Slanting Satin Stitch
15. Satin Stitch-Tied with Backstitch
16. Padded Satin Stitch
17. Block Shading
18. Long and Short Stitch-Tapestry Shading
19. Long and Short-Soft Shading
20. Laid Work-Tied with Cross Bars
21. Laid Work-Tied Diagonally
22. Shaded Laid Work (Tied with Split Stitch)

My coral, rosette and knotted pearl stitches not so good. Mind you, I don't like them much either. I can't say I like block shading or the long-and-short tapestry shading much, though I'm surprisingly fond of the soft shading and all the laid work. The fishbone is cool too. I definitely want to try using the fishbone for leaves.

The Van Dyke stitch seems to look better as a shape than as a line, which is a pity, as there's a variant of it that was widely used in many northern European cultures in the Viking Age as seam decoration, and I'd love to use it on a few pieces of Living History costuming, instead of the herringbone I usually use.


23. Burden Stitch (top-wide, bottom-close, right-line)
24. Squared Filling #1
25. Squared Filling #2
26. Squared Filling #3
27. Squared Filling #4 (skipped #5, because it was almost identical)
28. Squared Filling #6

Burden stitch-bleh. Except the closely worked bit with thicker thread (brown and beige). That would make awesome wicker work, or wattle walls. I have to admit I also like #26, even if it's VERY time consuming. Though after all these gridded square fillings, I'm really really REALLY tired of them. #31 (below) is also nice, but I don't think I'm likely to use any of these much.

I do very much still have a problem with both pulling the stitches too tight and tensioning the fabric too much. Several of the grids in this batch are only attached to the cloth at the the edges and as soon as I took the cloth off the frame they lifted right off and puckered. Hmm. The next batch is better.


29. Squared Filling #7
30. Squared Filling #8
31. Squared Filling #9
32. Squared Filling #10
33. Wave Stitch
34. Cloud Filling
35. Seeding
36. Weaving Stitch
37. Turkey Work

More gridded stuff. I swear, I was so sick of it after a while. I think that more than anything will probably keep me from using them much. Cloud and wave stitches are kind of cool. I wonder if I can do the wave stitch with broader loops to look like scales....

I think I like proper french knots better than seeding, though I've never been good at stippling anyway. I think I need to practice it with paper and pencil some.

Turkey work is neat. I still like weaving knotted pile rugs better, but it occurs to me this might be a better way to make miniature rugs. It's much more stable and non-pull-out-able than I thought it would be.


38. Cable Chain Stitch
39. Interlaced Cable Chain Stitch
40. Whipped Stem Stitch
41. Pekinese Stitch
42. Backstitched Chain Stitch
43. Threaded Backstitch
44. Interlaced Running Stitch
45. Interlaced Herringbone Stitch
46. Threaded Herringbone Stitch
47. Tied Herringbone Stitch
48. Spider's Web-Whipped
49. Spider's Web-Woven
50. Raised Spider's Web-Whipped
51. Raised Spider's Web-Woven
52. Raised Needle Weaving
53. Bullion Knots
54. French Knots
55. French Knots (triple wrapped)
56. French Knots (triple wrapped and stitched like Bullion Knots which is how I had learned to do them)

French knots done the way this book diagrams them is certainly easier and neater than doing them like bullion stitches. I might even start using them now that I've learned this way.

Some of these lacing stitches would be interesting to try using for vines, instead of stem stitch, especially for thicker vines. My cable chain stitching definitely needs work.

I don't know how I feel about the spider webs. Fun to do, but very 'crafty' looking. also wonder what they'd be useful for, since they look so much like, well, spider webs. I've done whipped ones before over beads to make later medieval buttons, but embroidery? Dunno.

Now on to planning out a few small projects to try the stitches out on.

"She Will Not Let Her Memories Become Wars"

"She Will Not Let Her Memories Become Wars"
2009
Embroidery; broken bra, reclaimed embroidery floss
Size: depends*

from "And This Is How She Feels", a loose collection of poetry

"She will not let her memories become wars,
She will not let you pick apart the corpse-bones of her remembering"

(*still trying to figure out how to hang this-the picture was taken with it pinned to the backdrop)



Stem stitch lettering, random stitch filler on ravens.

I need to build a better boob to display it on.

"Alexandria"-Work in progress?

"Alexandria"
2009 (2010?)
embroidery, ragdoll; old silk shirt, reclaimed silk thread, sewing scraps
81cm x 43cm x 14cm


The rag doll is done the same way as my period rag dolls are, then was placed under the silk shirt and the silk carefully pinned around it and sewn in place. Sleeves were sewn into a cradle (well, hammock, I guess!) for the doll.


on the bottom of the piece is this (partial) poem:

Alexandria

More a bruise than a stab wound
did you think I didn't notice it
feel it
cradle it close like a stolen child
pull it apart and rebuild myself with the pieces
...

Brenda Gerritsma
1994


The poem has a final line not here:
I should know better by now, I was last week's size.

I can't decide if it should be added or not.

This was one of my embroidery projects back in Feb.; though even then I thought it wasn't done despite having done everything I had intended to do with it. I really wanted it to be black and blue, but the lettering doesn't stand out as well as I'd hoped, and overall the piece just seems a bit 'blah' to me.

And yet, anything I've thought of to make the lettering stand out more (which pretty much means embroidering in and around the lettering-which I'm fine with) seems too...well...cheerful. Brighter blue, too cheerful, reds, oranges, yellows, definitely too cheerful, purple-actually I just hate purple with blue. Black's probably no good, gray too dismal. White maybe? Skeletal trees?

Art-ish Stuff-Toys for every medieval kid!

Not working on art so much since Feb-Mar, sadly. No money for shows or supplies. Sigh. Stupid economy.

Been learning new things though, new tapestry techniques and embroidery stitches, and took up a new hobby, in the context of my old hobby (Living History)-Medieval toy making! And it even tied into my modern artwork! (Though that will have to wait for the next entry).

Sadly, I failed to get pictures of my leather 10th Cen. ball, or my first rag doll, but here's my second!


The doll is based on a Roman Era doll found in Egypt. Doll body and clothing are made of linen, all hand-stitched, and stuffed with sewing scraps.


The costume is meant to represent an early 14th Cen. cotehardie, and shift. The idea of using a later period costume comes from this set of doll clothing found in Russia.

The hair is of an unknown fibre given to me by someone who found it entirely too soft to work with for whatever they had gotten it for. It's VERY soft, and definitely has some real hair (the white fibres), which give an interesting going-grey look, though I don't think I'll use it again, as it's a bit too flyaway looking. I don't remember the inspiration for the hairstyle.

Doll was put into a gift bag for Gleann Abhann at Estrella 2009, from An Tir.


Doll #3 was SUPPOSED to be a 14th Cen. costume based on the then-Queen of Atenveldt's research (as that was the Estrella gift bag it was destined for), but apparently turned out more Viking-looking.

Doll is made of linen, based on the same Roman artifact as the above, and stuffed with sewing scraps. Under-tunic is made of cotton (yellow-it was the only bright yellow fabric I had), and either linen or cotton (white) of a similar weight fabric, I can't remember. Over-tunic is made of linen. Both doll and clothing entirely hand-stitched, with linen thread for the decorative stitching.


Hat is linen, hair is silk dyed with some natural dye, though I don't know which, as it was from my stash of dye-sample leftovers.

I was given to understand the little girl who received it loved it, and that it was named Inga, after the then-Queen of An Tir, (it's the bright yellow braids...). I got a couple of very cute pictures of her with it; however, as she's not my child and I don't have permission I'm not going to post them, though I thank those who passed them on!


Doll #4, again a Roman era doll, though I changed the way I did the arms due to the shape of the linen scraps I had available. The arms are made separately, instead of as a single long tube sewn across the back of the body, and are sewn onto the sides at a single point with multiple stitches, to give them a semi-jointed movement. The linen was natural coloured rather than white this time. Hand-stitched again, and I believe also stuffed with sewing scraps (though it might have been polyfil this time-the horse I made at the same time was).

For a change, I dressed the Roman era doll in a Roman era dress! Chiton (white under-dress) is linen, with yellow stitching to represent the gold fibulae that would have been used to pin it. The stola (red), a garment signifying marriage, is made of cotton turban material. The braided belt is made of...I can't remember... scraps of thread, probably; likely cotton.


Hair is done in pearl cotton embroidery thread, and based on some of the simpler hairstyles worn in the Roman era.

Doll was destined for a gift bag given to Ealdormere at Pennsic 38.

One of these times I'll remember to take a picture of one of the dolls BEFORE I put clothes on it.

A Day Without Cats on the Internet

A Day Without Cats on the Internet? I don't THINK so!!!!!


Jack (Worship-teh-Belleh!) Sprat


Jack (again), my Mighty Skein-and-Butterfly Hunter


Persephone (But-I'm-CUTE!), Queen of the Universe.


Persephone 'helping' again.

I promise to get back to blogging art soon. I have been working, honest! Just have a hard time photographing anything where I live and no photography studio space to use.

Looms

These are the looms my husband built me, plus one jury-rigged from an embroidery frame. I mostly use them for tapestry weaving, though one was built for a pile-rug weaving class I was teaching.


They're basic frame looms, out of 1 and 1/4" x 1 and 1/4".  Cheap and easy to build.

The dots on the top are inlaid inch and 1/2 inch marks, because my husband is an overachiever. And the runes spell out "This loom not of period design", because it was used in a display of medieval tapestry weaving and someone said the loom should be marked as not being a design of the medieval period, and because my husband thinks he's funny.

Sadly, so do I.

Sometimes. :)


The sides have slots drilled part of the way through the wood on the inside (about 1/2 an inch) near the bottom, with a 1" diameter dowel resting in them. The slots are about 3 inches long, so the dowel can be used to tension the warp.

There are grooves on the front and back of the bottom horizontal piece, where tie-downs to hold the dowel under tension can go, without rubbing on the slot in the removable base the loom sits in.

The advantage of this design is that the dowel can be raised enough to allow even a new, thick spool of my favourite warp thread to pass under it, and the tensioning dowel is stable and pretty tight in the slots (it's not removable), so the loom can be turned on its side to warp up without needing a hand to hold the rod in place, which I find easier.


This is the loom made for a rug weaving class. I needed it quick so it wasn't finished as fancily as the previous. I wanted a heddle rod to speed up the rug weaving, which I don't use in tapestry weaving since my weft is rarely passing under more than a dozen thread in a pick, so my husband built a basic frame loom, with rests for the heddle rod.

This loom fits in the same removable base. Unlike the previous loom, the upper horizontal at the bottom is fixed. I wouldn't have bothered with it at all except I didn't want the warp threads to pass around the horizontal piece that fit into the base. Especially the way it was warped up for the rug class (see picture two below).


For tension, there's a loose dowel that can be hung from the top of the loom. This is a whole lot easier to make than the loom with the slots in the sides. But I find it a pain to warp up, because you have to hang the tensioning rod first, and it has to be warped up standing upright unless you have extra hands to help you.

Also, you have to leave room at both the top and the bottom of the frame for the spool of warp thread to pass, which means that while these are both the same overall size, I have several inches less usable warp on this second frame, if I warp up this way.


It was designed to warp up this way for the class (this is one of the student's looms, with a permanent base and better heddle rests), and I discovered after I got it home that the space between the two bottom horizontal pieces on mine isn't big enough for a newer spool of my usual warp thread to fit through. Works fine for this other kind of warp up though, if you warp up on the two warp sticks first then wrap the whole warp onto the loom.


The removable base. 2" x 8" (or maybe 10") with 2" x 2" mounted on it. Two holes drilled through both 2" x 2"s, with matching holes in all the frame loom bottoms, and a couple of pegs to hold the frame in place. The base is quite heavy and the loom doesn't rock.

Making the base removable means we can pack the loom flat, as space is often at a premium on our road trips. Flying, I would just take the frame, which fits in our largest suitcase, and not bother with the base.


This is the jury-rigged loom, from a small scrolling embroidery frame, a couple of pegs from my spool rack, and a couple of shoelaces, for a miniature tapestry. Just to show you can make a loom out of anything! :)

The stand, for those who are interested, is a couple of pieces of wood, 3/4" x 3", about 2 and 1/2 feet tall, with cross-pieces for feet. there's three holes at the top for adjustable height and the bolts can go through the holes already in the scrolling frame side pieces. You'd want heavier feet than I have (mine are just made with the same wood as the verticals), because the whole thing rocks when I'm using it, unless I put my feet on the stand's feet.

A break from serious stuff 3

To spare the squeamish, I'm only going to explain that "cookie ninja" was emoticon-speak for "sweetie-spy", and "eye heart ewe cookie ninja" was the way I signed off when I used to chat online with my husband every night as a safety check when he spent a summer working as a park warden at a small remote campground surrounded by bears, and cougars (mountain lions?).


The black cloth is cotton twill, reverse appliqued over beige linen. The embroidery floss is all scrap from my little-bits-of-floss-that-are-still-too-big-to-throw-out bin. They measure about 8cm diameter, are stuffed with sewing scraps, and have a magnet on the back of each so they can be stuck to my husband's filing cabinet.


The chocolate chips, iris and pupil are satin stitched, the white is split stitched, and the eyelashes single satin stitched.


The heart is completely split stitched, each half separately, spiraling inward, sort of. It's funny, I've never liked this stitch before, but it seems to have worked here.


The ewe is made of split stitched spirals for the 'wool' and satin stitched face and legs. The mouth is split stitch and the eye is a smoky quartz coloured seed bead.

I also made my husband, AKA The Polar Bear, a polar bear for his birthday (two weeks before Christmas), but Henry needs some cosmetic surgery and the spousal unit requested implants of the magnetic kind, so Henry will be posted when he's out of recovery. Heh. :)