When art is added to architecture, you end up with an original design

I like to think of the frontier between technique and a copyright design as art-chitecture. When architecture becomes invisible, trancended, then it is Art, and certainly fully 'copyrighted'.

We can easily differenciate this below - "Duo" uses herringbone (rope) and 3/1 drop peyote and "Time has Wings" uses herringbone, a mix of brick and picot stitch, Diamond Weave and a lot of inspirational details.

Time has Wings

Duo

But when does a creation, made with xy technique, become copyright? This is a difficult question and the answer, as well, is not easy.


This article is not academic. It is a personal view based on legal material and ethical views, and I hope that it will be of help. I decided to write this article after I got contacted by designer Aurelio Castano to show me a pair of fabulous pearl earrings made by him and Edwin Batres with Cellini peyote. If find them very beautiful.

Aurelio's earring

Aurelio considers that his earrings are too close to my Fandango earrings and despite my encouragements, he is very reluctant to write / publish a tutorial. He said that I was the inspiration and motivation behind it. But he didn't use my pattern, not even the same Cellini method.

It would be sad that he doesn't teach it. I think that he should. And I love that clever finding!

What is protected, what is not:

Aurelio's earring

Techniques are not copyright because they are necessary for progress (in every domain, science in particular). Only when a large number of steps and methods are involved, a technique can be protected by copyright.

Ideas, like "Going to Mars" or "a time machine" (that does not yet exist but in someone's brain) can also not be protected by copyright.

However, illustrations, photos and texts, patterns and such are always copyright, from the very moment they are published, no matter if the author protects them or not. Even a free tutorial is protected by copyright.

Fandango Ear Dangles

The way these works can be used is generally mentioned in the documents, or on the website where they can be downloaded. It is the author who decides where these documents may be hosted or how they can be used, so it is better to not host/use them without the approval of the author; often photos and tuts may be used for non-commercial purposes only.

Ethics: in case of doubt, don't do it. That is what Aurelio decided. But in my books, he may tutify his earrings because they have this subtile combo of his art added to architecture.

Between technique and design, it can be difficult to determine where the frontier resides. A good example of this complicated frontier are Jonna Holston's Fan-shaped earrings.

Fandango Ear Huggies

Fan-shaped hoops make a come back in the Cellini Peyote Freaks group. They look lovely with other Cellini creations, for a variety of bead sizes is used to create the fancy semi-circle shape. They are also perfect last-minute project for Christmas gifts. I could easily see how they were made (peyote in the round with Cellini sequence), but I wanted to find the original pattern back, only didn't know where to look anymore.

Cathification of Jonna Holston's Hoops

With the words "Peyote fan shaped earrings", I found a blogpost by Linda Genaw, Caravan Beads, several photo tuts on blogs and on BeadDiagrams.com. Google also showed my very own Fandango Earrings, which made me smile.

But I remembered a much older pair, which a Swiss beading friend had adapted from a project in a magazine. So I pushed my search a bit further and found out that I actually had the Bead & Button magazine in which Jonna had her "Holler for Hoops" project published. You can still buy Jonna's pattern here.

Jonna Holston's earrings
are like little baskets,
not flat

 

At first sight all fan shaped earrings look the same, but Jonna's earrings are slightly bumpy. They're double sided, like a half-tire. Gold-plated seed beads are heavier then the ordinary ones, so double sided was not my goal. I based my earrings on Jonna's start and had to adapt the bead sequence too for a really flat fan shape. It took several attemps before I got mine right. And I altered them with a 6/0 Miyuki baroque pearl to give them a personal touch.

Caravan Beads used different bead sizes and two more beads in their first pick-up (and fabulous colors), resulting in larger earrings, Anne Lazenby of  Beaddiagrams altered Linda's tutoral and turned 5 fans into a very beautiful necklace, Linda altered a Russian pattern. My fans are smaller than the others (less rows) with only one Miyuki size 6/0 baroque pearl seed bead to somewhat customize their look...

BeadDiagrams.com altered Linda's instructions
and turned 5 fans into a very beautiful necklace.

 

All the resulting fans are flat and lovely, yet Jonna's signature can be found back in all the variants: same bead count for nearly all, and most of all, her top 3-bead-bridge, which allows a regular decrease on each side of the earrings to create the shape. Very clever and a distinctive signature of her artchitecture.

I've seen many "Holler for Hoops", but not one exact hoop as Jonna's, double or single sided. I've come to the conclusion that most beaders who tried to make them had a hard time obtaining the desired result, no matter what pattern they choose to use. 10 years after the publication of her pair in a magazine I am not surprised to see an off-spring become "public domain". It actually seems that it had a long 'solo' life

This is a typical "grey zone". In case of grey zone, it is good to remember that in copyright laws the concept of fair use may apply. Learn more about Fair use - it is not something that allows you to use something without consent. It is a concept that acknowledges the possibility that there is lack of knowledge: here, many don't know or remember Jonna's design. They used a free tutorial from a Russian site, or from another blogger, and they say so. Fair use is also about design collision. It happens. It is unintentional. It is not totally impossible that the Russian who made that pattern did it from scratch. But those 3 beads... that start... hm hemmm. Fair use is a legal concept and may be invoked in a case. A judge will decide if yes or no it applies. Ideally, avoid getting that far and stay away from legal complications.

I say, let's bring beauty to the world, remain kind... help one another, give credit when we know / can and take a design sufficently further to make it our own.

Thank you for reading this first, long post about design. Read my next post about going beyond technique and please, leave a comment. I love to hear from you!