It’s horribly awkward and distasteful to talk about and I hate doing it here – but in terms of recourse this is really all I’ve got.
My birds are being produced and sold in Australia. Not by me, without my permission and until a couple days ago, without my knowledge. There are minor differences in the details but it is unmistakably my pattern. This is one of the offenders.
I inquired with the parties responsible who shall remain unnamed for the moment ( I’m still thinking about that one and also want to give them every opportunity to correct the situation without any unnecessary discomfort or embarrassment). They deny copying and they claim the similarities are just a coincidence. In an email responding to my inquiry they offered a vague story of how they came up with their pattern. They also reported that they followed the links to my websites that I provided and acknowledged that upon seeing ( they inferred it was for the first time) my birds that they are ” exceptionally similar ” but maintained it is simply a coincidence.
I suppose technically that’s possible, but pretty unlikely – here’s why :
* In December of 2006 they purchased one of my birds at The Johnson Shop in New York.
* The pattern they are using does not deviate from the pattern of the bird they purchased at Johnson at all, not one iota, including my very particular method of making wings and a slightly different tail pattern than the one I use now. It’s not really a sensible way to make the tail and I only used it on a couple birds including the bird they purchased. Sure enough “their” pattern uses that tail.
* In their response to me they not only did not mention the purchase but inferred they had never seen my birds before.
* They copied my little name tags too.
So, coincidence? I don’t think so .
There are plenty of people out there making birds, making them well and in their own distinct way : abby glassenberg, stephanie barnes, tamar mogendorff, florence forrest, and lauri faggioni are a few I admire. None of their birds or patterns are exactly like mine or each others .
I did not seek these women out and I take no pleasure in embarrasing or discrediting them. This was brought to my attention by a number of emails I received letting me know my pattern was being used. I think these are talented and creative people who made a mistake, an error in judgment and they should make it right. I’ve looked at as much of their other work as I could find as well as photos they sent me -its lovely- really elegant and unique and I wish them lots of luck with it – but hands off my birds.
