So, after a week or so, I have some clarity regarding the stolen pic issue. (read the last two posts for more info.)
As it turns out, Tartsie, the Etsy member who used my bead pics in her banners for sale, replied to my inquiries about what was up with that.
She claims to be very young - right out of high school. She also let me know she got my pics from something called
Flickr Creative Commons.
Now, the high school thing - well, first off, I am not sure I believe that it should be a good excuse, but I can let that go, I think.
However, the Flickr Creative Commons thing is just strange. I did at one time have a Flickr account, but I never uploaded anything to Flickr Creative Commons. From what I understand, Flickr Creative Commons is an area of Flickr where people can grant licenses giving permission for use of their artwork. However, none of the license agreements I read there grant permission to sell the artwork to others.
It's confusing, I know. At any rate, Tartsie claims that someone else must have put my pictures there if I didn't, because that's where she got them. She was unaware that she did anything wrong. I am not sure if I believe and/or agree with that, but there's not much I can do other than what I have already done.
The person who bought the banners has graciously taken them down and replaced them with something else, for which I am very grateful. Tartsie's shop on Etsy has been closed for a long time, so I am hoping this won't happen again with her.
However, this is a common thing, and I am sure it is happening elsewhere as we speak. All I can do as an artist is hope that people will listen to me and use their own images in their marketing. I also fervently hope that people who make and sell banner ads, avatars and web graphics will consider purchasing images legally and not resort to lifting them from the web, even from a place called Flickr Creative Commons. Obviously, it's easy to illegally post images there.
Aaaaanyway, I am moving on from this. I made some pretty beads yesterday, so if you read this far, thank you - here are some pics! :)
A nice little heat wave passed through our way last week (and by nice I mean kill me now), and it kept me in mind of those effervescent, summery colors of lime and sky blue. So I made more of these beads in my "Water Girl" scheme and threw them up on ebay this afternoon.
Colors like these make me think of island beaches and oasis pools at night with sparkly water and shimmering stars. And most of all, cool air. Oh, blessed cool air! lol
At any rate, I love these colors and how cheerful they are in the heat of summer. The black base and clear encasing bring out the saturation of the colors a bit, and made them a little tough to photograph, but I think I got them okay. Click the pics to see the auction - more pics are there on ebay.
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