Michon Jewelry Blog

A topic that comes up often on jewelry boards, in magazines, and in email groups is the difference between being “inspired by” someone’s work and copying a design. Legally, it is very hard to prove that a jewelry design is original, since people have been creating jewerly using the same basic materials for thousands of years. However, that doesn’t change the fact that copying someone else’s work and then selling it as your own original design is morally reprehensible.

This includes designs learned in a class at the local bead store, or making projects out of jewelry magazines. Usually if the instructions for creating a design are published in a magazine or book, or are being taught by the designer, it is okay for anyone to go ahead and make it - but credit should be given to the original designer. While it is possible that nothing is truly original, given the long history of jewelry design and the multitude of people who create jewelry, both professionally and as a hobby, it’s just nice to credit people if you knowingly borrow their idea.

I’ve had several people email me and ask if it’s okay for them to try making freeform wire pendants in the style that they recognize as being my style. I’m flattered. I definitely would prefer that nobody actually try to make an exact copy of one of my designs, but if you want to try the freeform style the way I do it - go ahead. I would appreciate if you mention that it was my work that inspired you to try this style.

Besides being the morally correct thing to do, people are always interested in where an idea for a piece comes from. I do a little bit of wire crochet, and sometimes experiment with weaving and other textile techniques but it would never have occurred to me to try using metal for these techniques if I hadn’t come acros the work of Arline Fisch, and then, through a book she wrote, been exposed to work by Mary Lee Hu and others. Granted, my work probably doesn’t resemble the work by the artists who inspired it, but if I think it’s interesting to know about these women who were active in popularizing this kind of work, maybe my customers are interested too.

People like talking to artists/designers about what they do and their creative process. I don’t want to get into fuzzy definitions of what makes someone an artist vs. designer vs. craftsman/woman vs. artisan, (and I’m happy to be called any of these) but I know that I love talking to creative people about what they do. Assuming that other people are like me and find this kind of thing interesting, I started a personal design journal separate from my website where I post pictures of some of my experimental designs and talk about what I was thinking when I made them. If other jewelry designers read my blog, I’d be interested to hear about your creative process as well.

-Leah