Showing posts with label copycat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copycat. Show all posts

Wednesday

Ivory Doesn't Grow on Holly Trees


Ilex aquifolium (Holly, or European Holly to distinguish it from related species) is a species of holly native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia.

It is an evergreen tree growing to 10-25 m tall and 40-80 cm (rarely 1 m or more) trunk diameter, with smooth grey bark. The leaves are 5-12 cm long and 2-6 cm broad, variable in shape; on young plants and low branches, with three to five sharp spines on each side, pointing alternately upward and downward; on higher branches of older trees with few or no spines except for the leaf tip, often entire.

The wood is heavy, hard and white; one traditional use is (together with ebony) for chess pieces, with holly for the white pieces, and ebony for the black. Other uses include turnery, inlay work and as firewood.

Now that you (you know who you are) know what Holly wood is, let me educate you on what it isn't. Although someone must have told you that ivory comes from Holly trees, it does not. Ivory comes from mammals. The Holly wood bobbin divider pin with the pyrography art work that you keep having removed from Ebay, is not made from ivory--remember, wood and ivory are two completely different materials. If you don't believe me, go read up on Holly wood at Wikipedia.

As we did the last time you maliciously reported our items, we have turned this matter over to Ebay and they are now monitoring your activity. If you plan on continuing to do business there I suggest you spend your time in a more constructive way, like working on your own craft. Of course, if you are hoping for a vacation from Ebay, I guess your activity is a quick way to get one.

Oh, and one more thing, Dave says to tell you that he is flattered that you think his burn etching in Holly wood looks so much like scrimshaw on ivory!

Update!  Dave just received an email from Ebay apologizing for wrongly removing his listing!  They acknowledged that this person reported it maliciously--wonders never cease ;)  

Tuesday

The Return of "Grasshopper"

I try to keep my blog posts strictly business, but my frequent readers will remember a previous post where I vented my frustrations about Dave's "copycat". Well, he's baaaaack!

For weeks, Dave pondered.....drew plans on graph paper.....thought some more, all in preparation of what he considers to be one of his best works, the Moby Dick Tatting Shuttle and Harpoon Picot Hook set. There had been several other attempts at recreating some of Dave's other popular shuttles by this Ebay seller before, so when he was ready to list Moby on Ebay, he added a statement of copyright. Can you believe, that this Ebay seller has copied not only the whale and harpoon picot hook idea, but also the copyright statement!

This seller contacted Dave on several occasions very early on in his copying career, subtlety asking questions about this or that and Dave being the nice guy he is, was more than friendly in his replies. Even now when I try and convince him to go through the proper channels to report this flagrant artistic disrespect through the VeRo process, he declined to do so. I recently discovered that this person has even started a new blog all about his tatting shuttles!

I assume, that since Grasshopper has obviously studied everything Dave has done, that he reads this blog. If he does, I have a little advice......karma is a bitch!