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copying, terracotta dragons and standards

updated mon 6 jun 05

 

Marek & Pauline Drzazga-Donaldson on sun 5 jun 05


Those who attempt to take short cuts by "cheating" - stealing the work of
others - are only kidding themselves. Let it go and move on yourself. I
teach and show without fear of being copied, what does it matter to me,
someone else taking the plaudits for your hard work, do I need to extract
revenge?

Some twenty years ago I began making the TerracottaDragon Ridge Tiles. I had
worked out the methodology used years back, made my own designs - loosely
based on the types seen up and down the UK - and exhibited them at the Queen
Elizabeth II Exhibition Halls in Westminister London. The following year at
major exhibition centres throughout the UK, the Big Boys tried to follow my
lead - some even resurrected their old factory moulds. to put it bluntly
they made a complete hash of it - the whole bloody lot of them. So I cut my
prices in half, and they could not follow, they started to slip-cast them,
they were totally lifeless and so incredibly crude. The why is because the
factories had all gone into the super mass production mode and had got rid
of all the old crafts people who could still remember the old methods.

Moral here is to believe in your own self and skills and bvugger the rest.

Standards? We should use the same perspectives when teaching others, give
them the information freely and with sincerity of heart, and be prepared to
help those that insist with passing on total BS with a mirror, but be
prepared to take the reprecussions that follow by being honest with yorself.

happy potting from Marek www.no9uk.com www.moley.uk.com