Thoughts on Tatting

I’ve been pondering about the following over the past few years and am offering this as my personal opinion on these subjects.

Copyright issues - Designs and Techniques.

I feel there are three intermingled issues here. I have been directly affected myself by all of the following and would like to make it clear to all who are interested in how I feel about them.

I get very upset if a pattern of mine is taken and reproduced with only slight alterations and then published as somebody else’s with their name as the ‘designer’. I think this is fair comment considering the amount of time that’s put into each design produced.

If somebody takes a design of mine which is very innovative, alters it and again calls it their own without then telling people where they originally found their inspiration then that puts them in my view in the realms of a deceiver. Not only of others, but also of themselves.

NOW, if somebody comes along and says ‘why don’t you’ do this, that or the other to a design and is prepared to do it themselves and acknowledge me as the inspiration or source then that is fine and also very flattering. In fact this is particularly good if I can add an alteration or improvement to my website thus keeping all the ‘progressions’ together in one place.

Techniques are a whole different issue. Techniques as we all know are not copyrightable but can be patented at vast expense. It is possible I may have invented one technique. My concern with this is that to my knowledge nobody has used it!! I would HATE to think that people believe that they can’t use it because it’s mine. NO IT’S NOT and I don’t want recognition for it either. I would just love it to be used, abused and developed. I could then quietly sit here and think to myself ‘hey, I did that and people are finding it useful’. That’s all I want. There are at present a lot of ‘new’ developments out on the Internet that I just dare not use because they ‘belong’ to somebody. OK, I can use them but only if I put ‘their’ name on each pattern that I use ‘their’ technique in but if I did that for one then I’d have to do it for all the techniques in a pattern and what a lot of ink and paper THAT would waste (let alone the additional time and research involved!) As there is some dispute over ‘who invented what and when’ over some of these ideas then I’m not prepared to risk putting my big foot in it by accrediting the ‘wrong person’. I truly admire those who come up with these new ideas but – what is the point if people are frightened to use them?

On another issue and finally – making money from our pieces of tatting! Hmmmm, if it could be done then where is our first millionaire tatter? I like to know if somebody wants to use my work to make things to sell. I love it to be for charity but basically I’m just nosy!!! I feel that the type of people who buy pieces may then become interested in making some themselves. I also feel that this can only promote our craft. The only thing which makes me very cross is that non tatters don’t appreciate the full value and are not prepared to pay as such for our time, skill and efforts!!! Still, they never will so there’s nothing we can do except put as high a price on a piece that we can realistically expect.

The above is purely my own opinion based on my life on this planet. If it offends anybody then I apologise but I felt I had to make my feelings clear in the ‘tat world’. I am here purely to promote the ART of tatting in as friendly a way as possible. I don’t want fame or glory – after all tatting is such a small part of the whole of the scheme of things. I’m off. Tat’s all I have to say for now.