Emmet Van Driesche
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notes from the stump

Ownership

10/31/2017

4 Comments

 
This is gonna be a brief one, folks, because I need to go make a cardboard sword for my daughter's Halloween outfit. She's going as a Greek goddess. Or something.

I wanted to throw my hat into the ring of voices setting the tone for what gets credited within the spooncarving community and how to address the phenomenon (which admittedly I haven't experienced) of having my work plagiarized. Most recently, Alex Yerks had a bit about this in his latest blog post, and if you don't know who Alex is, you are in for a treat.

While I found Alex's position understandable, in many ways I disagree with the basic underlying premise he and others have made, which is that credit should be given over and over to the people who got there first. Who invented the thing that we can now rip off as our own. Hand in hand with this is the assumption that originality counts for more than just being good.

I am of the opposite (or at least it feels opposite) opinion, that we are all just reinventing the same things over and over because there are human factors dictating what works and what doesn't (like how most doorways are a certain size because people are only so tall) and materials factors of what the wood does well or wants to do. While I think it is polite to mention if someone's work has inspired your own, and certainly you should give credit where it is due, I am always a bit baffled when people ask my permission to try a spoon design that they see me carve. My response is always that of course they should carve it if they like, that any design is as much theirs as it is mine.

The best argument I have heard for GIVING credit comes from Pat Diette, who said to me that from his perspective it's just about good cross promotion. It takes very little effort to credit someone whose work you admire, and it helps them reach a new audience and so the wheels of commerce and reputation turn. I like this a lot.

I don't see myself as trying to find a voice that is original, but I do think my work has a fingerprint that is unique to me. How could it not? And so I don't think of the design so much as the execution of the design to be the remarkable feature of a given spoon. This is also why (at least for now) I don't have a maker's mark. First of all, I figure anyone who's in a position to care enough to be curious about a spoon of mine will probably also have heard of me, and if not then oh well. Second, I feel like a maker's mark denotes some kind of claim of having reached some level that I don't think I'm at yet. I think it will be years before I feel ready to have a mark on my spoons. I'm still a journeyman at this.

And finally, as for the idea that people are ripping off your designs and costing you money, I just don't think it's true in any large sense. It is unlikely that the people buying the "rip-offs" would ever know about you or be in a position to buy from you. When I was first taking over my Christmas tree farm, the old owner, who was still farming some of the trees, would stand down at the end of his driveway and siphon people off to his part of the farm before they ever reached me further down the road. This drove my parents crazy, but I quickly realized that I had to play the long game, and not let the little things get to me. Ultimately, I think our choices as craftspeople and business people will lead to success or not, no matter what other people are doing.

I am also dismayed when I see people hold cards close to their chest. I understand the impulse-- that if I give it all away for free, no one will feel the need to take a lesson--- but I have found the exact opposite to be true. The more I share freely, the more people want to work with me and learn from me and support me. It has been true, time and again, that the more I give, and give freely, the more I receive in return.

I would really love to hear your thoughts on all this. Thank you

4 Comments
Josh Felton
10/31/2017 04:18:41 pm

I very much appreciate the balance you're striking here.
In many ways this sort of work is (at times almost literally) reinventing the wheel--and it seems presumptuous to take credit for the last little advance atop many others' shoulders or (re-)reaching an inevitable evolution of an ancient idea.
On the other hand, especially when changes to a design are less intuitive/obvious/inevitable, there does seem to be some value an artist (like yourself) has added that deserves credit (monetary or otherwise).
As far as where my own conclusion lands...I guess I think the most reward should go where the most heavy lifting is done. If the design was the "hard" part of the work, then the designer should get most of the credit. If the execution is the bulk of the labor, then the person doing that labor should get most of the credit. And eventually all designs fall into the "public domain" (in some sense beyond any narrow legal interpretation).
A good rule of thumb seems to be whether a crafter is comfortable revealing the source of their design--if they think they deserve the same credit for *their* work regardless of whether people know if they designed the piece or not, then they're probably on the right side as far as credit goes. If they're worried that people would discount their work if it were known that they hadn't designed it, then they're probably unjustly stealing in some sense from the designer.
Anyhow, please keep up your good work and good insights!

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Greg Nelson
10/31/2017 06:27:42 pm

You are very much on the right track here.

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Beth Tilston link
11/1/2017 02:33:51 am

I've made four spoons in my life. The first was a swimming pool, but the second third and fourth were pretty good for a beginner (at least according to a chap in the know at the single spoonfest I managed to go to before my tiny liability prevented me from going to any more). And that was entirely because I copied. I copied a Barn cooker which I still use today, and I copied DanDelion (or whatever moniker he is using these days). I think copying as a pre-master carver is wholly acceptable. And after that? I'm sort of with you on the fact that there are a limited number of ways in which you can make a spoon that works. I have noticed that you talk more about how a spoon works than most. I'm about to say something controversial, but perhaps it is possible to take spooncarving too seriously...? (Eek!) I'm comparing it with scything here. You can spend the same amount of time becoming a master at both 'crafts', but it's more accepted within the scything community that there are a limited way of doing things (though, as you know, there are differences!). I think it's the difference between makers and maintainers. A maker takes virgin materials and adds him or herself to them to create something wonderful and new (and in the case of spoons, something that they hope will persist for a good amount of years). A maintainer has to deal with what's there already and bring it back to what it was before. It's a sense of being part of a continuum (you know you'll have to do it again), rather than an individual.

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Martin Ryan link
11/29/2017 04:52:09 am

Emmet,

I attempt to adhere to the idea of sharing where the design elements of a spoon or bowl come from, but I totally agree that we are all re-creating things from the past. Your comment regarding sharing information and people are more likely to take a class or buy a spoon is spot on. I purchased a spoon from Adam Hawker after he did a video with ZedOutdoors for exactly that reason. I also have a problem with some folks that feel the need to say they are the victim, while not simply stating the facts. I think that level of transparency needs to be part of the conversation.

As I'm just learning, one of the things I did to acknowledge those that have shared information and design elements or research sources is to publish a list of those that have inspired me on my blog. I doubt anyone would recognize their designs based on my level of skill, but I hope it helps others that are learning, and I hope it helps cross promote those that have been so generous with their knowledge.

Keep doing what you're doing. I enjoy it!

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    My blog has evolved into a series of short essays on the nature of entrepreneurship, craftsmanship, and their overlap. If either of these topics is something you think about, you will probably like this.

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