The mini version of my Flock illustration mounted on wood

Gonna do a little experiment The New Year’s Sale in the Etsy shop, which was a coupon code-based sale, is now an overall price-discounted sale. That means you don’t have enter a code to get the discount, and the price on the listing already reflects the discount of 25%.

Happy New Year and happy shopping!

My Etsy Shop

Thanks to all my customers and supporters for another great year on Etsy!

From now through Dec. 25th, get 50% off your order with coupon code THANKS50

This is a great opportunity to get yourself a little something after giving so much to others!

Art Blocks & more by John W Golden by johnwgolden on Etsy

Step one is to create the print itself. I use a heavy weight matte surface paper, and it is very important that the print is water resistant. 

Normally, I mount my prints on 3/4″ Birch Plywood, but with a print this large, 3/4″ ply would be awfully heavy. A good alternative is what is called a Cradled Board. It is basically a thin piece of plywood with a cradle, or wooden frame, attached to the back to add depth and make the board more stable.

Cradled boards are commercially available, but usually only in standard sizes. Since my BOTM series are not standard sized, I have to make my cradled boards.

That means cutting 1/4″ Birch ply to size.

And ripping select wood to the required cradle depth. In this case, the customer did not want a lot of depth, so we chose 5/8″ for the strip size. With the 1/4″ ply, total depth will be around 7/8″.

This is the assembled board. I use very short brads and wood glue to attach the cradle to the board. 

This project is for five pieces, so I repeat the process 4 more times and get the 5 cradled boards you see here. At this point, after countersinking the brads on the front of the board, it’s time for lots of wood filler and sanding. Each nail hole needs to be flush, or it will be visible in the finished product.

Once the boards are sanded (and in this case, the sides painted white) Mod Podge™ is applied in a thin coat to the front of the board.

Then you hold your breath as you place the print on top of the glue…

Being careful to not put pressure on the print until it is loosely positioned.

I use my fingertips to “feel” for the proper alignment of the print. I make my board slightly smaller than the print to leave my self a little room to work with while positioning.

Once the print is in position, I carefully work the surface of the print to make sure that the paper is adhering to the wood. I try to eliminate air bubbles immediately and pay special attention to the edges because if the print does not stick well there, it’s not easy to fix later.

Here you can see the mounted prints. The next step is trimming the print, but that will have to wait for another post

It’s that time of year again! I’m starting my holiday sale early this year.

Use coupon code HOLIDAY to get 20% off your entire order. Sale will end without notice, so buy while you can

www.etsy.com/shop/johnwgolden

The folks at Southern Living have featured my Dog Art in the August 2011 issue of Southern Living. Thanks to the editorial staff for helping spread the word about my work!

Just added The Jostling Junebugs to my Critters series! Also, I have extended my Summer Thank You Sale to allow a few folks that contacted me to purchase to have the opportunity to take advantage of the sale. Sale will end as soon as those folks have made their purchases. Sale has ended.

If you are unfamiliar with what I call the knockoff community, let me tell you a little bit about it. It is a community of people who refer to what they create as knockoffs. It’s probably what you are familiar with when you think of a knockoff, a cheaper version of a particular item. Catalog items are frequently knocked off, as the expense of many of those items puts them out of reach of many in the community. So, they find a way to make their own version for a lot less money. They then share these knockoffs along with instructions on how to make your own knockoff. There are websites devoted to knockoffs, and a lot of cross-linking and featuring goes on between the sites that serve as the hub of the community.

In my experience, most of the copiers I have dealt with were good people who had no malicious intent and felt that they were doing something to help people. All apologized and complied with requests to stop distributing their electronic copies of my work.

It is very upsetting to many artists to find their work copied, or to imagine it being copied when they see another’s work copied, and artists seem to come to each others’ aid when they see copies or knockoffs. So, a discussion has started. Some of the best discussions I have seen were started by folks who are part of the community and want to hear people’s opinions on whether what they do is possibly unethical or a violation of copyright.

I am also disappointed at the callousness of some of the segment of the public that sees nothing wrong with copying the work of others. In discussions I have been in, artists have been called arrogant, professionally jealous and overly proud with an overblown sense of ownership. If someone tells you they think their rights have been violated, it does not help to belittle them. You can certainly see nothing wrong with copying if you choose to, but there is no benefit to the conversation in kicking someone when they are down.

It has been great to hear opinions on whether knockoffs are infringement, and if not, at what point sharing knockoffs or how to make them may be infringement. But, our opinions and what we non-lawyers think we know about copyright law are not what determines if a copy is a violation of copyright.

The holder of a copyright has the following rights regarding a copyrighted work according to copyright law:

• The rights to reproduce the work in copies, prepare derivative works based upon the work, distribute copies of the work, and display the work publicly.
• The creator of a copyrighted work also has the right of attribution and other rights concerning the alteration of that work.

If someone avails themselves of any of those rights without the permission of the copyright holder, they expose themselves to the risk of the copyright holder claiming infringement and the resulting penalties if it is determined that infringement occurred.

I don’t know if stating that one is copying or has copied an item, and then posting images of that item online and instructing the public how to copy the item infringes copyright of the copied item. I think it’s close enough though, so that if I am the creator of the copyrighted item I should contact the copier and let him/her know that he/she created an unauthorized copy of my work. If copies are being distributed, I have no choice but to send a cease and desist and request removal of the downloadable files and whatever other remedies I find necessary.

I have to do that to protect the rights provided by my copyright. Those rights are the basis of what allows me to make and sell reproductions of my artwork, which is how I support my family.

For me, whether or not copies dilute my brand or offend my sensibilities or hurt my feelings does not factor into my decisions to pursue copycats. It comes down to whether or not a copy violates my rights.

I would hope for people who condone or actively participate in copying (and those who encourage others to copy another artist’s work through tutorials) to consider several things:

• 1) Is traffic on your website or helping others save money really worth the pain in the neck of being sued for infringement and the possibility of having to pay damages (possibly up to $30,000 per for infringement, up to $150,000 per for willful infringement)? If the argument for making the knockoff is the high cost of the original item, should you not then avoid exposing yourself to that high cost risk?
• 2) Though infringement is technically a violation of rights, to many artists and designers, it feels like theft. It feels like something has been taken from you. It is a troubling experience. For myself and many I know, it does not feel like flattery. It feels like someone likes your work, but not enough to obtain it through proper channels. When someone is encouraging people to make their own copy and not buy from you, it does not particularly feel like you have inspired someone. It feels like your ability to derive future income from your work is being affected. It feels a bit like someone knocked you down and took your lunch money. It feels like that person is saying, “I like what you did, but I don’t think your skill, expertise, vision, years of hard work, talent, and dedication to your craft had anything to do with how it came out. Anyone could do it.”
• Please keep that in mind when you embrace an opinion that copying does not hurt anyone. You may not agree that creative people have rights, but it’s not necessary to say there is nothing new under the sun. No one would ever create anything inspiring if we all believed that. If you need to quote a bible verse while telling an artist your negative opinion of his or her rights (happened multiple times), why not: So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you…
• 3) I have never seen anything in copyright law related to art/design/craft that says that you can make one copy for personal use. But, if that is true, it may be prudent to consider whether sharing your copy online and using it to encourage others to copy goes beyond personal use. Sharing it online will likely alert the original artist of your copy, and if it’s in a post about how to copy the item, you may have to defend your actions. Hopefully, the artist will only ask that you remove the post, the images and not share or distribute the files to anyone.