Busy Hands, Busy Minds

Elie and I were both recently impressed when kits we bought (enamel repair and photo emulsion) came with high tech stirring devices. Behold the popsicle sticks. Intentional junk in the background.
In other happy hand news, Beebs and I got a surprise--my dad randomly sent us a box full of vintage plastic bracelets. What fun! I like the really wide red one the best.

There's been a lot of activity over at this old post. Boing Boing did an article about fabric copyright, specifically Heather Ross and copyright and fabric use, and it's stirred up discussion on the subject again. Kim of Dioramarama wrote a really good article on Whipup, which got linked in the comments by jixichick back over here. Whew! If that doesn't sound like a he-said, she-said, I don't know what does.

I didn't know about Amy Butler's limited use policy at the time I posted the vintage look-alike, so it feels a little bit odd to be a part of this conversation. At the same time, I'm glad we're talking about it, glad that the designers have made it clear that it's fine if we crafters use their fabric. Hopefully no other designers will think that's a good idea. I've learned something new about the fabric industry--vintage fabrics are bought by designers for reuse all the time--although I do think it's extra odd to be finicky about use in this case. (If you didn't create it, how can you say who can use it?) I think I get part of where the fabric designers are coming from--they don't like their names associated with things they haven't approved of--fabric thongs or otherwise. It seems like, generally, one of the downsides of success is losing control of your name.

I'll just add my name to the list of people going hmmmm.....