I don't think so - 'free' has been part of the quilt world culture since the craft began - and in fact this quilters' culture behind the copyright problems now that many quilters are published and preciously protecting the copyrighted material in their books or class teaching handouts, whatever. Nina's right - there is a lot of nitpicking obsession about copyright and a lot of ignorance about it in the quilting world as a whole; but the palin fact has always been if you put it out there - teach it, print articles about it and publish pictures about whatever you are doing, people will try to copy it, for sure. And that's true of any human endeavour, regardless.
Leah's work is justifiably focused, and technically highly competent. Using modern technologies to spread her knowledge far and wide, show her to be the born teacher she is. However she's not the only one, and then again, not everyone who is doing great stuff is able to teach or demonstrate it, and who says they should, anyway? To teach is a great option if you are able, for fee or otherwise.
Contrary to the impression given in this superficial article, many quilters and art quilters (for they are two distinct creatures) are actually highly generous with technical information, and many teach, not necessarily for a fee, in the knowledge that a receptive student will learn, absorb and develop an idea in ways the original teacher might never have considered. So I refute these silly or rather ignorant statements from the article -
(1) "Art quilters are extremely cagey about their designs and techniques"- a genuine artist knows it is all about the ART not about the techniques used to achieve it.
(2)"Online photographs of art quilts are rare, and tend to be postage stamp tiny" This is total b.s. - and anyway, who says anyone has to put up huge photo files? Again, it's about the art, not the technical detail revealing every minute stitch or thread used in achieving it. Would anyone complain about a sculptor's work this way? Of course not. Nina has taken very little time to research the truth of this thoughtless and untrue comment which may have been made to her.
(3) And finally, "Most quilters are affluent and retired" This is just so not true - yes, I know where she probably have got this figure - the annual survey the Quilting Industry publishes, and she is porbably young enough that anyone in their 40's looks 'old' - but there are many people out there making quilts who are never touched by the survey - and again, this survey group does not necessarily cover any of us out there making art quilts - and as I said, "Art Quilters" and "Quiltmakers" are entirely different. It's a shame Nina didn't take a bit more time to understand what she was really writing about.
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Bringing 'free' to the quilt world is anything new?
I don't think so - 'free' has been part of the quilt world culture since the craft began - and in fact this quilters' culture behind the copyright problems now that many quilters are published and preciously protecting the copyrighted material in their books or class teaching handouts, whatever. Nina's right - there is a lot of nitpicking obsession about copyright and a lot of ignorance about it in the quilting world as a whole; but the palin fact has always been if you put it out there - teach it, print articles about it and publish pictures about whatever you are doing, people will try to copy it, for sure. And that's true of any human endeavour, regardless.
Leah's work is justifiably focused, and technically highly competent. Using modern technologies to spread her knowledge far and wide, show her to be the born teacher she is. However she's not the only one, and then again, not everyone who is doing great stuff is able to teach or demonstrate it, and who says they should, anyway? To teach is a great option if you are able, for fee or otherwise.
Contrary to the impression given in this superficial article, many quilters and art quilters (for they are two distinct creatures) are actually highly generous with technical information, and many teach, not necessarily for a fee, in the knowledge that a receptive student will learn, absorb and develop an idea in ways the original teacher might never have considered. So I refute these silly or rather ignorant statements from the article -
(1) "Art quilters are extremely cagey about their designs and techniques"- a genuine artist knows it is all about the ART not about the techniques used to achieve it.
(2)"Online photographs of art quilts are rare, and tend to be postage stamp tiny" This is total b.s. - and anyway, who says anyone has to put up huge photo files? Again, it's about the art, not the technical detail revealing every minute stitch or thread used in achieving it. Would anyone complain about a sculptor's work this way? Of course not. Nina has taken very little time to research the truth of this thoughtless and untrue comment which may have been made to her.
(3) And finally, "Most quilters are affluent and retired" This is just so not true - yes, I know where she probably have got this figure - the annual survey the Quilting Industry publishes, and she is porbably young enough that anyone in their 40's looks 'old' - but there are many people out there making quilts who are never touched by the survey - and again, this survey group does not necessarily cover any of us out there making art quilts - and as I said, "Art Quilters" and "Quiltmakers" are entirely different. It's a shame Nina didn't take a bit more time to understand what she was really writing about.