Secret Holiday

Mass-produced without my permission UPDATE

This just seems so obvious.

Thank you so much for picking this up and sending it to me Whitney! As disturbing as it was to hold this in my hand, it is really nice to have been able to shoot decent photos of the copy in the same poses as the original, hopefully to help make my case more obvious. It is, right? How can anyone say the original animal was not copied here?

 My case is moving along super slow, but that's okay. I'm not going to just give it up. This animal was bought for $9.99. That's insane. And it's so sad to see this Made in China sticker on it's belly. Heartbreaking. Well, at least it doesn't say "Fern" on those mass-produced bums.

Here are a couple other copies I found in a local shop, mass-produced by the same company:

A super shoddy version of a little birdie made by Stephanie Congdon Barnes, selling for $12, with that awful sticker right on its face. 

And a little owl originally made by Paper Fox. 

I'll keep you posted with any new information. Thanks for all of your support. It really helps me to keep my head up and stick with this, no matter how much I sometimes want to just drop the whole thing, to just close up the Fern Animal shop after a good five years, and move on with my life. I know that is not the right thing to do, as hard as it is to know copies of my design are out there, tempting others I'm sure to copy those... 

Dear internet friends: you help make me strong. I cannot tell you how much I truly appreciate you. Through all of this, and everything else over the past five years. Thank you. 

(you can read the original post about this situation here.)

Mass produced without my permission

I made lots of progress today with my copyright stuff. (Thanks to Djerba and her super sleuthing!) I guess since I haven't really talked about it at all here, I should start from the beginning...

About a month ago it was brought to my attention that this specific Fern Animal (sold in 2007 and pictured above left) is being mass produced by a US based company and sold through their holiday catalog, wholesale and very very cheap (pictured above right). I immediately heard my mom say "I told you so" in my head, since she has been telling me to copyright my work for almost five years now. I wish I hadn't brushed her off all those times!

Now I am finding myself working with a lawyer for the first time, and spending hours and hours researching this company, snooping on the internet, and dwelling over what the release of these knock offs may do to my holiday business. It has made me think a lot about how I spend most of my days.

Some people have asked me if, instead of making this company stop making my animals, I would want to just get cut in on the deal. I mean, sure, the idea of sitting back and collecting the cash sounds nice, but not when I think about how that cash is being made. Not when I consider the fact that I determine my prices based on how many hours I spend on a creation (a basic Fern Animal will take me an average of three hours start to finish). Not when I think about that fact that whoever stitched up these little knock offs must only be making pennies for their work. (I sell a typical ornament for $36 - theirs are listed at $4.50 wholesale. Four dollars and fifty cents!) 

This goes against so much of what I love about having my own little business. I love knowing how much time went into making something. I love knowing what materials were used, what it's stuffed with, where the materials came from. I love spending those hours putting myself into a tiny creation, and then sharing it with all of my old and new internet friends, and finding a loving home for this little animal I fell in love while stuffing its' tiny body, or stitching its' cute little face. I love knowing that I began making these specifically to make myself smile, and being aware every day that I am extremely lucky to be able to stay home and create hundreds of these because they make other people smile too. And I love that the people who purchase my animals appreciate the time and love and devotion I put into every single one. 

Actually, the thing that upsets me the most about this whole situation is that this company bought my animal through Etsy. And then a year later they bought a couple more, and copied those too. And today when I was looking through the buyers history, I was able to go through their entire current catalog and find five other artists whose work they purchased on Etsy and then mass produced. I have already contacted these specific people, but once I get the go-ahead from my lawyer I would like to announce the name of the company, along with the sellers username. They have bought hundreds of items on Etsy over the past three years. We need to stop these kinds of things from happening. I really don't understand how someone can go to a place like Etsy, where you specifically buy handmade items sold to you by the person who handmade it, and turn around, ship it to China, and sell hundreds of identical items for a fraction of the cost. How can someone think that is okay? 

Ugh. Well, I suppose I could go on and on about this... but it's late now, and really, I've probably already said more than I am legally supposed to. I've just really been needing to talk about this and make people aware that these kinds of things are going on. And just so you all know, I am not currently selling anything in any brick and mortar shops any where. If you come across a Fern Animal ornament with antlers, I would really love to know where you found it. And even though I don't really want anyone buying these knock offs, I would love to hold one in my hand, and see just how identical it is.

More than any of this other stuff, I want to take a moment now to thank you for supporting handmade.J Just by reading this post you are supporting handmade. You are why I do what I do. You are how I am able to continue doing what I do. And I could never thank you enough for this wonderful opportunity.

UPDATE: I posted a response to the last comment shown below - please click the teeny tiny arrow to read it. Thank you!