Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Urban Threads : when crafting is used for evil?

Various craft blogs and etsy among others have been posting the news about Urban Threads - a company who poses as an indie, crafty individual - ripping off designers and artists including Sublime Stitching. Feel Stitchy has a nice thorough piece with side by side comparisons that pretty much erase any doubt.

So I was especially disturbed when recently my embroidered embroidery scissor piece was favorited on flickr by Urban Threads. I'm sure they feel free to do whatever they want with any artwork that is out there but I did what I could think of which was to block UT on flickr.

It really makes me crazy and upset that this person/these people are out there continuing to do this crap, using the online communities we use for positive things like support of each other to troll for ideas. I'm not flattered, just disgusted.

1 comment:

Urban Threads said...

Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching has retracted these accusations. In her statement, she withdraws her claims of copyright infringement, reveals that she edited and manipulated patterns in side-by-side comparisons, and apologizes. More information, as well as Jenny's retraction, can be found here: http://www.urbanthreads.com/content/view/603/

All of us at Urban Threads and Embroidery Library would like to thank Jenny for making this public statement. We're happy to have this matter settled, so that we can look forward and fully focus on making awesome and unexpected designs for hand and machine embroidery.

If you have any comments or questions, please drop a note to support@urbanthreads.com. UT exists because of the hip stitchers of all ages and backgrounds who dig it. We value tremendously what you have to say, and we love to hear from you.