Lupi Pizza

The first ever Lupi Pizza!

Made with Francesco's Father's magic dough, fresh, delicious ingredients and the crazy hands of Ale!

Shaping the pizza

The crazy hands

The sauce

With all the toppings

Ready for the oven

Cooking in the wood oven

Lupi pizza and the chef, Ale

It was a beautiful day, great weather, Franesco's Father's pizza for lunch then hanging out at the pool soaking up some sun before the thunder and rain arrived in the evening.

Francesco's friends

Sewing, even when i'm on holiday! Just had to finish up Ale's Lupi Pillow. It was crazy busy at work, so had hardly any Suki time. I began sewing pillows the night before our flight and finished them in Italy.

Chiara, Christina, Cinza and the Sukis

Ale and his Lupi Pillow

Lorenza demonstrating the uses of the pillow

What separates inspiration from imitation?

SukiSuki Sheep

I have been thinking about this topic for a couple of weeks now. There is a very fine line between the two. It is a very important topic and also highly sensitive.


* How do measure if something is inspired or imitated?

* How much does a design have to be different in order for it to be regarded as insipiration and not imitation?

* What would you do when another crafter approaches you and asks to make something similar to yours?

* How do you respond to someone if they say they are inspired by your work and then make almost an identical copy?

*Does making minor changes count as not copying?

* What rights do you have if you feel your design has been copied?

* Is it reasonable to ask publicly if something is a copy or not?

* What can be done to protect your designs?


These are questions I was faced with when I recently had an unpleasant experience with another crafter, who in my opinion has a problem differentiating between inspiration and imitation.


This crafty crafter first began contact with me by telling me how much she loved my sheep and might have to get one for her best friend, who was in hospital. But then asked if she could make one similar instead. She promised it would NOT be for selling and just a one off. I even offered free shipping to her friend who was in the UK. This was ignored. From the very beginning I told her it would have to be different and in her own style. And to my surprise her next response switched to saying she would check with me that her sheep would be different enough to sell. I was so confused and till this day the sudden switch was never explained.

 So when her sheep was completed I was quite shocked with the similarities. But politeness took over me and I said it was fine, as it was a little bit different. I asked if this was going to be given to her best friend in hospital and she replied that she's keeping the pink one and making a BLUE sheep for her friend and will make more for craft fairs!!! This was the point when I kindly asked her to just change it a little bit more to make it look more like her own style, as I felt they were too similar. Especially since she was planning on selling them!

She refused to change a thing saying that they only looked similar because the followed general characteristics of sheep! She insisted that her sheep was now her design.

Wanting to make sure my eyes were working properly I asked other crafters what they thought and they all agreed it was far too similar.

Despite me not agreeing it was different enough to my sheep, the other crafter went ahead and published her sheep on her business page. This stirred a reaction in the crafting community. I also posted pictures of her sheep on my page, asking what people thought. There have been very mixed views. Some people think its a copy and others disagree. The crafter did not respond well to comments about them being similar or people saying that hers is a copy. I was then accused of telling people to write on her page. I would do no such thing! The moment she published her sheep she made it a public matter.

Here is a comparison of what the other crafter created, after being "inspired" by my sheep, and my SukiSuki sheep.

Comparing sheep

There were some comments saying there is only one way to make sheep. This collection was kindly put together by a very neutral crafter, taking no sides, but just wanted to show there is NOT only one way to make sheep. This made me sigh and laugh at the same time.

Many ways of making sheep

I have never seen any other sheep plush that look like mine - until now!

She used the same fabrics, fluffy and fleece, the same colours, pink, blue and who knows what other colours she has, and used pretty much the same body shape and gave the same horns. Only the eyes and ears are different.

Which leaves me to the question of what separates inspiration from imitation? Apparently this crafter believes very strongly that her sheep is not a copy.

It is one thing if she is making them for personal use but it is an entirely different matter the moment she made them for selling. I feel she crossed the line. And she is selling these at craft markets.

If she was just going to make a sheep this similar, why on earth did she ask my permission in the first place??!

This is certainly not the way to make friends in the crafting community. I have been fortunate to meet other crafters who are kind, warm and supportive, value originality and would never dream of doing such a thing!

I can see there are differences and I admit, it is not an identical copy.  However, this crafter should also admit this is neither her design. 

The London Olympics 2012!!!

 The 28th of July, it was the very first day of the Olympics and also Francesco's birthday! As a surprise I took him to see the Beach Volleyball event/ Our friend Alessio was able to get 2 extra tickets for us, the day before! It was pretty lucky!

And to add to our luck, when we were at Horse Guards Parade, we managed to acquire 2 free extra tickets for better seats! We gave 2 friends a call and gave them our seats.

Watching Team GB playing against Canada

It really was terrific to be at an Olympic event, and on the first day! Beach volleyball was so much fun to watch.  Team GB, mens put up a good fight but Canada was a stronger team.The weather was great and generally the overall atmosphere in London was really nice. It was surprisingly quiet in the underground and above ground on the streets of London, not at all chaotic as everyone was predicting.

 

These Policemen were very polular with the tourists and I could not resist asking them if I too could take their photo. However, I had one extra request, which was for them to hold my little sheep :) They were happy to oblige.

Birthday Francesco with Andrea and Mauro

Lucky Andrea and Mauro to get our tickets.

Francesco's birthday dinner at Koba

 We were supposed to be 12, but after 2 couples of cancelations, in the end we were 8. We had a set menu for 8, but there was enough food for 12!!!

Catching up

It has been over a month since my last post! Now I do not know where to start!

I guess I can begin with how I accepted a job back in Games! After almost exactly a year since I left Guerrilla, I joined Super Massive Games. It was an unexpected turn! I had my doubts at first as I did not want to neglect SukiSuki, especially since things were going forward and I was getting more and more busy. And the commute to Guildford did not thrill me. However, this job opportunity came up at a good time, sinc we are buying a house (oh yeah, we are buying a house!) and I really liked the company and I some friends from Guerrilla are working there too. So I accepted the job offer! It is a 6 month contract, working 4 days a week.

Four weeks have passed already! Waking up early has been a nightmare! In my first 3 days I managed to lose my work pass twice... I lost the first one in the office. Then the worse part was that after litterally one hour of getting my 2nd pass, I lost it! It must have fallen out of my jumper pocket when i was taking it off while crossing the road, walking into town. The third pass was given to me, attached to a string so I can hang it around my neck and not take it off during the day. And last week I lost my bank card which is a complete mystery where they went to!

It is fun working with people again. I have missed it!

Here we are having a picnic lunch on one of the rare warm, sunny days this years Summer has seen so far.  This is actually the day i lost my my 2nd pass! I only realised after lunch.

Girlie lunch with Angela, Julie and Michelle

Last week, another girlie lunch was organised with all the girls in the company.  We went to All Bar One. I could not resist the fish and chips.

Fish and Chips for lunch

We are missing Angela and Michelle, otherwise there would have been 8 of us in total.

The last four weeks have been tiring. Luckily, Super Massive agreed for me to have a 4 day work week, allowing me to have one Suki day. Which is great, but completely exhausting at the same time. One day is not enough, I end up having to sort stuff out and wrap up orders after I get home after work and sew during weekends also.

But I am enjoying juggling to 2 things. I just have to adjust and find my rhythm.

Old Guerrilla bunch - Geert, Angela, Cesare and Rob

 It really is nice to see familiar faces from Amsterdam here in Guildford. The CG industry is a small world, wherever you go you are bound to bump into someone you know. :)

Here is a photo from Samantha, the winner of my Lupi Pillow Giveaway! She wrote a lovely post about it on her blog. I am so happy she loves her pillow! Here he is on Sam's new sofa.

Naomi has only 1 month and a half left on her internship with SukiSuki. She has been sewing more and making paper toys for me.

Naomi's monster for International Monster's Day

Naomi's Suki and Suki keyrings

First paper toy design - Tea Bags

Paper toy tea bags designed by Naomi

The tea bags will be available to download free. Just needs some final touches.

I have been wanting to do paper toys for a really long time! I did attempt to make a Lupi paper toy but did not have time to continue and finish it. Naomi has been given the task to research and design paper toys based on my sukis. We hope to release some soon!


So here is a summary of what I have been making... 

An order for 2 pillows and a sunflower from a very lovely customer

All finished

 The donuts have been very popular! Eepecially the bunny donuts!

An order to my friend Judith in The Netherlands.

And order sent to Ireland

Our concierge Rod and the large Lupi pillows

New mini werewolf and werebear donuts

I went on a crazy buying-supplies-frenzie on my last Suki Friday, before starting my office job. I just could not resist buying this gorgeous fur!!! It really is so soft and lovely!!!


Finally I got around to making two more flowers, like the one I made for my mum's birthday.

Cotton Flowers

This one sold almost right away

Here is Rod again, posing for me

Go to Etsy Shop

My batch of bunny donuts are all sold now. :) And I have one to make for a baby, so no glass eyes.

Add caption

A special gift for my friend Maggie - A Monster Donut

My postal scales

I would always cycle to the post office to find out how much items cost to send, and after having several shocks of postage prices and very inaccurate estimations, I decided it was best to own a scale. No more surprises!


It has been a busy month! Will try not to leave it so long till the next post!

I have not even mentioned the sheep!!!!