Elaine - I, as you can see from my signature below, have mine online
My feeling is that if someone wants to steal it they will find a
way to do it anyway. I only make one-of-a-kind, so if anyone should
see multiples of one of my designs they know they aren’t really
mine! I also feel that if you have a true “voice” to your work it is
probably not going to really convey to copies. I have trouble seeing
how someone would copy, say, Sam Patania’s coral necklace he recently
blogged about, or Pat Pruitt’s lovely pearl necklace he also recently
blogged about.
These two have very clear “voices”, and I don’t think you could
mistake a ripoff for the real thing.
Also, once you have sold a piece, you have no control over what the
buyer does with it. We have this problem constantly in my "other"
life (moving equipment and supplies), with the Chinese mainly ripping
off US textiles. But they don’t come close on matching the actual
quality of the piece. They can make a cheaper piece - but it is,
genuinely, a cheaper piece! We have to carry some imported items to
service this price market, but to meet our quality standards we
actually control the production of an entire Chinese plant, so that
they manufacture to our specifications. Which still doesn’t meet the
quality of what we manufacture here in the US! See the following link
if you are interested:
http://www.sandhillquilting.com
People with a discount store mentality won’t care - they buy price
not quality. But then they are not your genuine potential market
anyway, are they?
Beth Wicker
Three Cats and a Dog Design Studio
http://www.bethwicker.com
http://bethwicker.ganoksin.com/blogs/