So, I went ahead and made all of my filtered stuff just friends-only. I have made all of your comments on past ones invisible, as they were said in confidence. Here, they're going to stand, and going forward. It's all coming out in the open, and if need be, I will make everything public. [ETA: I have made this public and after consideration, screened comments because they were written under friends-lock.]

I had a good chat with a friend I respect who has an impeccable record re: integrity issues, and she told me that I should entirely name names if it comes to it. We'll see, though. It was a good talk, though, and reassured me that people I thought would think less of me after only hearing one side of the story, as she had, don't at all. A big relief.

However, I did want to do a fact-check on things I know Alicia's been saying, some of which you might have seen. This, for instance, was published to a very large crafting group, SFEtsy-- the San Francisco street team, and sums up a lot of what she's been saying in other venues (emails as recent as early summer, etc):

I want to offer a perspective that you may want to at least consider.
I have had my own issues with a copycat. She was a former friend, so
she knew my work and had exposure to my personal blog where I would
show my current work, sometimes talk about ideas, goals, and upcoming
concepts. My suspicions mounted for over a year of "coincidences" in
various things like photography style, phrasing, style of
descriptions, banner redesigns, and derivatives of my actual jewelry.
I chose to take a left turn with my creations and picked up wire work
to get her off my heels (which she, "randomly", started doing a month
later, and again with PMC). At that point, things were getting obvious
enough that over a dozen people, independently of each other,
contacted me with concerns. That's when I knew I wasn't imagining it.
It gets worse, but this is the tl;dr version of it.

Here's the catch: once she got wind that I suspected her of things, we
had a difficult but honest private conversation about the issues and I
thought, naively, that things would get better and we'd both step back
from each other. HOWEVER, that very day she began a smear campaign *on
me*. Suddenly, I am the onecopyingher. For the past year, since last
autumn, has made various blog posts and Tweets that either plainly
(with links to my shop) or passive-aggressively (thinly veiled
potshots) make stabs at my ethics, reputation, and artistry. Funnily
enough, I haven't been to her site at all this year, and Google
Analytics shows her on mine once a week.

Etsy is rife with problems like this, some worse than others.

I just wanted to offer a summary of my story so that you can consider,
and make certain, that you are okay with all the possible outcomes of
taking this more public. I don't want a potential turning of the
tables on you to blindside you if it happens. I was definitely
blindsided.

--
~Alicia

( Fact check on aisle four.Collapse )


So. Basically. That's the last I have to say about this unless I need to make it alllllll public. Don't really want to, but if she continues this bullshit, it'll happen. She's lying, and lying shamelessly and blatantly at that. I am going to kick back, try to relax, and do my best to forget I ever knew her. Never fuck with a Virgo. We have facts.

Happily, the thing that inspired last night's post about, well... inspiration... resolved quickly and easily.

There was someone with good intentions who was nevertheless posting very near identical pieces to mine & Kyth's work while saying she was "inspired by" Sihaya Designs and Wyrding Studios. We both wrote to her, and she was totally understanding and cool about it. Resolution achieved.

Unfortunately, by Google Analytics and snide comments, I'm pretty sure someone else thought I was writing about them. Meh. You can't win 'em all.

I am having a serious problem with a friend who is also a jewelry maker on my friendslist.

In the last six months or so, her work has been veering very close to my work in some instances. Not all of it, of course, but enough that I have gotten emails about it from my customers.

For instance, do any of these look familiar to you?

www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25073402
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30676337
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30688387
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34238802
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34248946
www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=21382439
www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=17414843

Or, from last night's Yule update:
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34240711 (also available in silver)
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34243373
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34243178

And these are just the ones I could find off the top of my head.

Here are the facts: I've had three emails saying "do you think she's copying you?" My answer has always been, solidly, "I don't think she would ever copy me on purpose." And I don't. I really like her and I know in general, she is all for originality.

The thing is that we buy supplies from a lot of the same sources. Up until recently, this has not been a problem. In fact, we've talked on more than one occasion to make sure there wouldn't be too much overlap, and it has always gone swimmingly.

However. When I post "My Winter's Gift / Winter's Branches are coming back this year" and then she bumps up her update from Thanksgiving to right before my update-- and hers contains similar to nearly identical versions of my Yule mainstays-- I get rightfully hurt and upset. Especially when she did something similar around Samhain-- at first, she was adamant that no Halloween pieces should go up before the Autumn Equinox-- my update was set for Mabon. And then suddenly, her update went up one day before mine. Bottom line, it was hurtful and feels deceitful, whether or not it truly was or not.

So, I just emailed her.

Hi Alicia.

First of all, I want to make it clear that I am coming to this place not in anger or accusation, but I do need to talk to you about something.

Intentionally or unintentionally, I feel that some your work has been too close to my work. I started noticing it in the update you did before Samhain-- because I got an email from a client who thought I might have an Etsy copycat based on some similarities she saw in three of your pieces that were quite close in execution to ones I'd done. I assured her that was not so, that I knew you personally and that you would never do anything intentionally unethical.

However, your electroplate leaves in your next update (Samhain) gave me pause because you were now styling them quite similarly to how I style my Sylvan leaves. Then I saw your Yule update. I applaud your wire wrapping. It is lovely.

However, these pieces made my jaw drop:

[Pieces from above]

They are either quite close to or identical to pieces I created and sold last Yule. Furthermore, I announced that My Winter's Branch / Winter's Gift pieces would be coming back this year because they were staples of my Yule collection. I have, in fact, gotten two emails this morning alone on the "she's stealing your ideas" line.

I don't know what to say here. I truly and honestly don't think you would ever intentionally copy, but with every update, I'm seeing more similarities, and it worries me, both on an artistic and interpersonal level. I absolutely do not want to have drama with you because I think you're a lovely person, but I do feel I have to speak up in defense of my own work.

Warmly,
Chris