Dis...
Disillusioned, disenchanted, disappointed - I'm not sure which is the correct word to use here.
'Naive' is probably it, to tell the truth.
Did you know that some of our most beautiful cross stitch designs are only ever designed on paper or on a computer before they are published? I didn't. I don't know why, but I assumed that if someone or a company was going to ask people to pay good gold for a chart, a prototype would have been stitched beforehand.
That would be the professional thing to do, right?
Surely, if someone charges a very large amount of money for his/her designs (not to mention that the designs incur enormous cost to a stitcher to kit up), s/he would have actually road-tested what is published! Just because something looks good on paper, doesn't mean it is going to work in real life. In any other industry, it's a foregone conclusion that you have created a real a model before publishing. Can you imagine the car industry if this wasn't done? Or even a Butterick sewing pattern?
For my two cents' worth, I have an expectation that what I am about to spend up to two years stitching on(not to mention $300US to kit up) will actually have been road-tested.
I got an email from a designer (through a yahoo group) stating that she couldn't possibly stitch a model of everything that she publishes & so she was requesting a high resolution photograph of stitchers' works so that she could find one she truly likes in order to use it when she publishes her work in print. To add insult to injury, she advises that she is prepared to give the person whose photograph she chooses acknowlegement of the photograph and a copy of a chart as payment.
Pffft!
What say you fellow stitchers?
'Naive' is probably it, to tell the truth.
Did you know that some of our most beautiful cross stitch designs are only ever designed on paper or on a computer before they are published? I didn't. I don't know why, but I assumed that if someone or a company was going to ask people to pay good gold for a chart, a prototype would have been stitched beforehand.
That would be the professional thing to do, right?
Surely, if someone charges a very large amount of money for his/her designs (not to mention that the designs incur enormous cost to a stitcher to kit up), s/he would have actually road-tested what is published! Just because something looks good on paper, doesn't mean it is going to work in real life. In any other industry, it's a foregone conclusion that you have created a real a model before publishing. Can you imagine the car industry if this wasn't done? Or even a Butterick sewing pattern?
For my two cents' worth, I have an expectation that what I am about to spend up to two years stitching on(not to mention $300US to kit up) will actually have been road-tested.
I got an email from a designer (through a yahoo group) stating that she couldn't possibly stitch a model of everything that she publishes & so she was requesting a high resolution photograph of stitchers' works so that she could find one she truly likes in order to use it when she publishes her work in print. To add insult to injury, she advises that she is prepared to give the person whose photograph she chooses acknowlegement of the photograph and a copy of a chart as payment.
Pffft!
What say you fellow stitchers?
posted by Felicity | 7:06 am
11 Comments:
I think that sucks. I wish I knew who you were talking about though. I thought that they got models stitched up before it went up for sale - I mean otherwise how do they find any mistakes or make changes?
And in reply to the final paragraph, why on earth would the stitcher of the photo she chooses want a copy of the printed chart as payment when she's already stitched it?!?! Basically she's asking for model stitchers for free, and that's after you've bought your own supplies too! Not on.
I'v often had this little chat myself! AND I hate it when you buy a chart and you have to pay extra (sometimes lots extra) for separate finishing instructions (grrrrr) If I buy a chart fo ra box - then I blooming well want a box when I'm done - I dont want to have to go buy another box to see how to finish it (rant over).
I agree - it is rare that I buy soemthign that doesn't show a finished stitched model on the chart pack!
So the designer will pay you with a chart you've already stitched yeah? Useful!
I'm in agreement with you, I really want a stitched finished piece to be shown. That way they know the colors really work in real life, and that the chart and directions are correct if someone model stitches if for them. I can see just having a computer picture for small pieces (I have several LHN and CCN pieces that are like that for example) but they're smaller and I know how they'll turn out. For a large, involved, and expensive project, I'd be very upset if it wasn't tested before I kitted it up. I say they should have it model stitched before it is released, why would I what to take the time and spend the money to do it myself and then give it to them for free and get a chart, which I already had and paid for, in return?
Sue
I think it's ridiculous.
I say it just isn't fair and it isn't right. There are so many stitchers out there who would love to stitch a new pattern for a designer. And why shouldn't she provide them with the materials to do so!!!! I would think this would be an ideal set-up.
I can understand that the designer herself might not have time to stitch every design but you would think she would have someone stitch it before she publishes it. I don't usually buy patterns that don't have a picture of a finished product first. The only time is when I mess around with a design and make a few tweaks of my own ... that I'll see as I stitch and can adjust if necessary.
I can't believe some designers don't have the chart stitched and for the same reasons as the other commenters!(Is that a word?lol) A LNS near me was looking for stitchers to stitch things for her to display on her walls. She would let you pick out a certain $ amount of things from her shop. But I really feel like that is a lot of stitching for just a chart!
I work in the software industry and I have to admit that I'm laughing like a crazy person, because this is the sort of thing software companies get away with all the time. Not that that makes it right!! And as for the payment issue, well at least software developers are well paid - good grief!
I think it is very poor indeed. I would think they would want their own model.
Why on earth would you want a copy of the chart you've already stitched up? I tend not to buy anything that isn't already stitched up as a model. It really bugs me to see some of those designs on eBay that are nothing more than computer generated charts of a previous drawing or photo. First of all many of them are using copyrighted images I am sure they don't have the rights too, and second, I doubt that any of them would stitch up very nicely. There's more to creating a pattern than running it through some software.
Hi there! Just stumbled onto your blog and wanted to say 'Hi!' :)
Just adding my tuppence worth here, on this one .......
It gets me rauched up too. In the past I've beta stitched for some designers, to make display pieces for their patterns, and 1 designer in particular has a really bad habit of promising cash payment when pieces are recieved, but then not paying up but still using the stitching to advertise the project. I see my piece on her website and fume when I think she got it for free AND it cost me money in materials to kit it. Grrrr. (I don't stitch test pieces for designers anymore BTW, lol.)
Maybe I'm just unlucky with the ones I got to stitch for, but it tars them all with the same brush in my opinion.
I expect some are decent.......
I hope that lady on the yahoo group doesn't get anyone to fall for her cheap labour ploy. Who would want a copy of the pattern they'd already kitted up and stitched for her? Cheap, cheap, cheap......but typical, from my experience.
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