twist of wire, lump of clay, and lick of paint

Precious little black sheep on my brother's knick knack shelf. Sure is cute. Hey, know what? You could make something like that, too.

Now if you did make a little sheep similar to this, would you be copying? plagarizing? stepping on the copyright toes of the creator of this one? Or would the original just be an inspiration, and because you will be using different wire, different clay material, and different paint colors, as well as bringing your own level of sculpting skills and your own ideas about what a sheep looks like, result in something quite separate from the original? Is your imitation just a sincere form of flattery?

I argue like this with myself every time that i realize i'm using someone else's piece of work as an inspiration for my own work. If i see a bead that i would like to try to replicate, i learn a lot in the attempt, but it never looks like the original, so i've ended up not worrying much about it.

If anyone has their own thoughts on "copying", feel free to comment or send them to me. I'll change a few words and post them as my own thoughts--just kidding. :-) I'll post and give credit to you as "one of my readers".