Any returning visitors may have noticed that my blog's makeover is well under way! I'm very pleased so far and would like to thank my wonderful best friend for helping me to bring my doodles to life for my header. Check out her blog, Creative Therapy, to see some of her own artwork.
Besides bringing getting my blog shipshape, part of this whole effort has been about opening an online store to start selling some of my pieces. Etsy seems like the obvious choice, but I have been reluctant due to reading a number of horror stories about how nasty things can get if you get copied/are thought to have copied someone else.
Having thought this over and decided to take the plunge anyway, I was today searching for similar examples of my cat ring to determine how much to charge. To my dismay, I found my answer, in the form of a ring that looks exactly like mine. In every way. It is the same. Don't believe me? Check it out here.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this. The buttons are obviously readily available, as are the ring backs to mount them on. I knew when I made the first one that if I could make more, people would buy them...it's just a shame someone else realised that before me! And indeed this shop has nice long list of sales, of black and white cat rings and even necklaces (yes I had thought of that too!).
The upshot of this is that I can't now sell my cat rings on Etsy. Which does make me sad, and worries me about selling any of the other rings too - seeing as they are all made from easily available buttons too. On top of this, it reinforces my fears that a) there's no such thing as a new, unique idea out there any more and b) it's pretty easy to copy someone else's idea even if you don't mean to! Which make me very reluctant to put my felt animals for sale on the internet either.
I am sorry about the long post, with no photos. Well done and thank you if you managed to read this far! I needed to get this one off my chest. I admit defeat and wish the Etsy seller above the best of luck - I take my hat off to them for being able to make money out of this lovely product. So, if you fancy one of my gorgeous cat rings for your own, get along to their shop! Just remember you saw it here first.
Your felt animals are adorable! They are also harder to copy than a button ring, because of the talent and imagination needed to make one. Go for it! Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
ReplyDeleteAnd you can still sell your rings, even if someone else sells them. You will be driving different customers to Etsy than she will.