Warning: this is a very long post. Grab your coffee or your popcorn and make yourself comfortable.
Essentially, what we need to take into
consideration when talking East European mentality as it pertains to this
situation at hand is:
- - The elderly and the ill are third-class human beings and you can treat them any way you want; and
- - It’s ok to swindle, lie and cheat, if that makes you money: that means you’re a “smart one” and you know how to make your road into the world.
- - How a person is appreciated depends on the amount of expensive things they own, and you always must show off what you have so people can look up to you
- - People are only as important as the amount of money you can make off of them.
I know, sounds horrible eh. Well, it is the truth. Check the post right before this one, I tried to explain it in more detail without making THIS post longer than it needs to (and it's LONG)
Now, let’s start our story.
I will skip over and not bore you again on how I decided
to start my youtube channel and make tutorials, and my health issues, and won’t
tug at your heartstrings, will go straight to the facts.
Now what I am going to tell you is about an attempt to
intimidation campaign. I have seen it done many times in my life, I know exactly
where I made the mistake, but it’s not really just East Europe, it’s generally
business thing.
It’s used when you perceive someone starting to be a
threat for your business because their stuff might be better quality and some
of your customers might move to them.
1.
For this one you don’t
have to be a big name or be established, all you need is a bit of money to
afford to do it.
The idea is: every time you hear someone wanting to do
something, you hurry and do it first, to make them disheartened and make them not
do it. I.e. if it were a business making shoes, they talk about thinking of
launching a line of white sandals for next spring, you hurry and come up with a
line of white sandals BEFORE them, so by the time they get theirs out, yours
will be known. With the appearance of the internet it’s even easier – a couple
hundred bucks put into a smart worded google adwords campaign and hiring some
Indian guys for a few bucks to keep googling your name (or company name) hitting
your website and your materials and soon in google and all over the world, the
term “white sandals” will be forever associated with your name/company name and
make you the inventor and best ever creator of white sandals.
See, I actually AM a SEO specialist. I do know a lot of
things. I really do, and I do know how these things are done. I’ll show you in
a bit exactly how you can figure out if that is what was done, just a bit of
patience.
2.
For this one, you need
to be at least semi-established as a known name.
Because you’re well known, you start making exactly what
they’re making – it doesn’t matter if you do it worse, and no matter if the
smaller company/individual complains, because you already have a big crowd of
followers and money to employ the strategy I explained in the previous
paragraph (the whole google and how to manipulate it), it will be again YOUR
name associated with that specific product/idea/whatever.
Now, let’s get to it.
Back in June 2017, I had started to actually get subscribers.
So I guess I started to get noticed by sweetcheeks. Especially because I had
already done a couple gemstone imitation techniques in which she absolutely
needs to be told that she’s the best.
I first started talking about making a faux malachite
tutorial on June 24 2017, in my first ever “talk about my plans” that was not a
live at that time, because I was right before hitting 1,000 subscribers, and
didn’t want to have a live until I would be able to have live chat.
https://youtu.be/m6iPYwZy3nQ?t=1024
https://youtu.be/m6iPYwZy3nQ?t=1024
Now keep this in mind until I talk about the next one.
At the end of June, I started actually
having a lot of fatigue issues, and could barely keep up and doing anything, so
I had to skip over a few of the things I had planned and leave them for later.
Then, in July I started reaching out to
various manufacturers so I could do more interesting tutorials.
I first talked about testing enamel in my live “chat with you”
on August 5 2017. I had already gotten the material, was preparing the final
video to upload it for review by the manufacturer (the link will start the
video at the exact time I’m talking about it).
https://youtu.be/R0Q1vuqxkWY?t=1173
https://youtu.be/R0Q1vuqxkWY?t=1173
On August 8 I uploaded (unlisted) my video for review. You will be able to watch it as I am posting the link, otherwise it can’t be found on searches.
Then guess what? Surprise surprise,
sweetcheeks posted later that day a tutorial on… using enamel on polymer clay. Then
another one on August 11.
Now here I did the mistake. When I saw that
she had posted tutorials on using enamel on polymer clay (at the time I didn’t
really dwell on it, it seemed like a coincidence, things like this happen) so I
thought "there's no use now, I’ll
post something on it later".
Now THAT was the turning point. THAT was when she thought
that she can easily intimidate me and she will have no problem intimidating me
in the future on not making the things I had announced I would make.
My health kept being bad for the following months, and then
my pets had issues, so I didn’t to much in terms of tutorials, not like I used
to do in the beginning. You all know that.
Now, let’s get back to the malachite, because that’s another
story, and a little uglier.
So finally I started being able to work on the faux
malachite at the end of August.
I had a good friend (or so I thought) who was half Russian, and
she had been my friend for a long time, we’ve known each other from college. I
had actually invited her as a honorary member in my secret group on
facebook. At that time, as I wasn’t
feeling good, honestly, I made the mistake of not checking the “only
administrator can invite members” setting.
Anyway, fast forward, I had posted some photos of what I was
working on, and said I wasn’t too happy about them and I was going to re-do the
whole thing.
Then, the next day, I even don’t remember for what reason, I
was checking in the membership on the group, when I realized that I had more
members in the group than I thought I had (this was my secret group for my
sponsors, and I was always posting what I was working on).
So I went and checked, and sure enough, there were some
names I had no idea who they were. One of them a Russian name. I go check the history
of the group and sure enough, my “good friend” had invited them to the group.
Right away I kicked them out and banned them – including my friend. I won’t go
into details on the online message exchange that followed (she still lives in
Romania), suffice to say that we’re not friends anymore.
So, these were the photos I had posted. Do they look
familiar in any way?
I thought so.
Anyway, I continued working on my tutorial, through the
fatigue and pain, posted later more photos on the (now) final tutorial, and
released it on my secret group on August 28.
Then moved on and didn’t think
about it.
Surprise surprise again, sweetcheeks posted a faux malachite
tutorial on September 2nd. If you look at that tutorial and at the photos I had posted in my secret group before the whole "who the heck are these people" thing blew over, you'll see they look like a very convenience "coincidence".
That was when the whole thing with the unknown people in the
group suddenly made sense.
I decided then (and talked about it in my next live chat) to
not announce anymore what I will be doing.
Things seemed to be ok for a while. I mean, yes, little things here and there, I did dragonflies, she had to do dragonflies, I did faux metal patina, she had to do it too (with expensive stuff that needed to be shown off, because the fact that I was showing you how to do it cheap went straight over her head)
Even if that was when I started seeing that there was a bit
more to it. And I started doing a bit of snooping (I am by nature a very
suspicious person), especially after I had just watched one of sweetcheeks
tutorials that was showing something that was eerily similar to a tutorial that
was a few years old that I had just read on a French artist’s blog.
I’ll post some links at the end of this.
Then sometime – I think it was the beginning of October –
sweetcheeks posted a tutorial on how to sand and buff. And as usual it involved
a lot of showing off.
To be honest, by that time – and this is just me and my
personal feeling – I was not really watching much of her stuff, even if I was
still subscribing to her channel, because – the whole showing off was really
starting to be very annoying, I would just skip through the video in a “ok, ok,
I saw, you got a lot of stuff, now get we get down to business” thing, and the
other thing was that really put me off, to see her saying on her “discussions”
tab (you can’t see that anymore, as a youtuber with over 10k subscribers she
replaced that with the “community” tab) that she will from now on reply only to
people who are her patrons on patreon as her time is too valuable – that pretty
much made me want to puke.
And that not even once was she giving any credit - anytime someone thanked her for sharing "her" techniques, she never once said they weren't hers - so many beginners are still going on believing fervently that she is the one who invented the watercolor technique, the Sutton slice, the hidden magic, etc. And I am not kidding here. I got many messages from people after they either watched my tutorials where I presented the history of these decades-old techniques or read the "history of polymer clay" page on here or the links I had posted.
I don't know. I have this thing about giving respect to the pioneers of this art. And generally, respecting people for what they did for the rest of us.
And that not even once was she giving any credit - anytime someone thanked her for sharing "her" techniques, she never once said they weren't hers - so many beginners are still going on believing fervently that she is the one who invented the watercolor technique, the Sutton slice, the hidden magic, etc. And I am not kidding here. I got many messages from people after they either watched my tutorials where I presented the history of these decades-old techniques or read the "history of polymer clay" page on here or the links I had posted.
I don't know. I have this thing about giving respect to the pioneers of this art. And generally, respecting people for what they did for the rest of us.
But I digress.
So, anyway, we had a little bit of a bump in on that tutorial of hers as I had asked a honest question, as in what exactly are the buffing wheels that should be purchased for the foredom machine. She replied very haughtily that she just gives general information.
So, anyway, we had a little bit of a bump in on that tutorial of hers as I had asked a honest question, as in what exactly are the buffing wheels that should be purchased for the foredom machine. She replied very haughtily that she just gives general information.
I replied that well, a
tutorial is supposed to be a tutorial as in teaching people exactly what they
need to know, and not all of us have to money to spend on several buffing
wheels to figure out which are good, and if she doesn’t give an information
like this, what was the exact use of the tutorial?
Again, haughtily, she tried to lecture me
about how the process of teaching should be (as a funny fact, she’s a high
school graduate – if that – while one of my majors at the University was Pedagogy
– the science of teaching – I thought that was really funny) and ended up
telling me to “work harder” to make the money.
Now sorry but that really riled me up. I
didn’t even want to mention the fact that at that time, after 7 or 8 months, I
already had almost double the amount of video tutorials posted than she had in
over 4 years. I just told her that it’s really rude and uncalled for to tell a
disabled cancer survivor to “work harder” and that she showed to her followers
a nasty facet of her personality. A few other people joined in the discussion –
including one of her patrons who since left her and yes, became my sponsor; funny piece of info, she's hounded that former sponsor of hers on Patreon, saw that said sponsor was also sponsoring Gayle Thompson, and started messaging her asking "what is Gayle Thompson offer you better than I?".
Don’t look for that video anymore, it isn’t visible. Dunno, maybe too many
negative feedback to all that showing off and rudeness? Or even if she made it visible again, you won't see the comments as she banned me from her channel. But here are the screenshots. Interesting that long after this happened, it finally dawned on her that maybe she should be nicer and actually give full information to the people who asked about it - just check WHEN she replied to them with information.
Edit: the video is not taken down. It can be found here. And I guess she even un-blocked me so you can see my comments.
She's hounded people she saw replying on my facebook page (can't ban her on that one, you can only ban people who have "liked" or replied or interacted with the page somehow) especially when those people happened to be working on anything remotely connected with gemstone imitation, including people who were participants in the "Imagine" contest I held together with Polyclayplay to encourage beginner. She went and looked through their photo albums, and where she saw anything remotely resembling any of her tutorials, she started commenting and berating them why didn't they mention her as their mentor? - because, of course, sweetcheeks is the only one allowed to do gemstone imitation techniques.
And if you didn't know yet, on ANY of the pieces you might make from her tutorials, you MUST mention her as your mentor. You don't believe me? Check this out (it's on all her latest videos)
I don't know, I somehow failed to see mentioned din any of her videos, facebook page, "Art page" or anything, names like Victoria (Tory) Hughes, Jennifer Patterson, Nan Roche, Maggie Maggio, Lindly Haunani, Anne Sophie, Page McNall, Linda Geer, Lisa Pavelka, Sindee Holt, and so many others that she used the techniques from in her videos, and as I said, never bothering to mention who are the authors, on the contrary, allowing people to believe she's the one who came up with this - and of course, beginners and people who know nothing of the history of polymer clay, believe that!
Oh, and also, don't forget, if you use any of the "tricks" she uses, you must give her credit! So, using your pasta machine, rollers, cutters, textures, etc... don't forget to mention it's all from her!
Probably on the textures and cabochon molds, if you purchase them, you MUST mention everywhere she is the mentor!
Edit: the video is not taken down. It can be found here. And I guess she even un-blocked me so you can see my comments.
She's hounded people she saw replying on my facebook page (can't ban her on that one, you can only ban people who have "liked" or replied or interacted with the page somehow) especially when those people happened to be working on anything remotely connected with gemstone imitation, including people who were participants in the "Imagine" contest I held together with Polyclayplay to encourage beginner. She went and looked through their photo albums, and where she saw anything remotely resembling any of her tutorials, she started commenting and berating them why didn't they mention her as their mentor? - because, of course, sweetcheeks is the only one allowed to do gemstone imitation techniques.
And if you didn't know yet, on ANY of the pieces you might make from her tutorials, you MUST mention her as your mentor. You don't believe me? Check this out (it's on all her latest videos)
Oh, and also, don't forget, if you use any of the "tricks" she uses, you must give her credit! So, using your pasta machine, rollers, cutters, textures, etc... don't forget to mention it's all from her!
Probably on the textures and cabochon molds, if you purchase them, you MUST mention everywhere she is the mentor!
Anyway.
Fast forward to January 7 2018.
I posted my very first quiz game on my
Kalyana facebook page that involved showing some cabochons that were mostly
blue, and asking the viewers to identify which faux stones I was working on.
But my page had an unexpected
follower, eh?
Followed a flurry of activity that involved
lots of making “blue faux labradorite” (because see, the cabochons I had shown all had a blue base) “violet faux labradorite” and other
invented types of “faux labradorite” that were fed to her patrons for the usual
cha-ching. She got tricked on that one as the most important gemstone imitation that was in those cabochons was the faux pietersite. But if you take the time to watch my facebook video and her "blue labradorite" video on youtube, you might find some interesting "coincidences"
As a side note, she went ahead and contacted the people I had taken just seconds of videos from to tell them about my "intro" video. One of them, she befriended and are now "sisters" - that one threatened me to get my channel closed if I don't take down the intro video with a few seconds of her presentation of a gemstone. I did, as I did not have time to waste, the "fair use act" allows using seconds of materials when it's about teaching something - commercial use or not. I can give you screenshots of those emails.
As a side note, she went ahead and contacted the people I had taken just seconds of videos from to tell them about my "intro" video. One of them, she befriended and are now "sisters" - that one threatened me to get my channel closed if I don't take down the intro video with a few seconds of her presentation of a gemstone. I did, as I did not have time to waste, the "fair use act" allows using seconds of materials when it's about teaching something - commercial use or not. I can give you screenshots of those emails.
Then she went after my faux black opal. She
figured out that something is glittering in there, so she started playing with
glitter and made lots of blue, red, violet, etc … “black opals”. I can’t even
tell you how much hilarity ensued in certain discussions following all that
frenzy of activity.
It was actually pathetic. Then she invented
“carved labradorite”.
Then she heard me talking about landscape
agate. Guess what she did next?
Then she started to actually get totally
brazen.
I had uploaded a mock-up "faux rhodochrosite" tutorial using the scraps from the "blazing heart" cane and announced I will be doing a real faux rhodochrosite both in Premo and in Pardo.
I had uploaded a mock-up "faux rhodochrosite" tutorial using the scraps from the "blazing heart" cane and announced I will be doing a real faux rhodochrosite both in Premo and in Pardo.
She hurried up to do the “faux rhodochrosite” being all secretive about the clays
she used. My friends, that was no “premo translucent red”. She tried to work
Pardo, has no idea about Pardo, made her
mixes with Pardo translucent red and of course it looked pink when she mixed it
but coral red after she baked it and it cooled.
Now let me tell you another little thing.
See, the faux malachite tutorial I had on Amazon sold just once. Right after I
had posted the Premo faux rhodochrosite and I had announced I was going to do
the Pardo one. Remember I had said that rhodochrosite forms like the malachite,
botryoidal? Well, guess what? There were two things she used in that failed
faux rhodochrosite that were from my faux malachite, that had a reason to be in
a faux malachite tutorial but no reason to be in a faux rhodochrosite tutorial –
the flattening of a skinner blend and the use of “lines”. It was essentially my
faux malachite tutorial, applied to “making rhodochrosite” using tinted Pardo
translucent.
That is why I made the regular faux
malachite public and announced that whomever purchased it, they should contact
me with proof of purchase and I’ll give them access to another tutorial of the
same value.
How many people do you think came forward
to claim their due? *chuckle*
One of the funniest parts was that I was
making posts on my Kalyana facebook page directed at her and she was answering
them on her personal facebook page!
Yes, I did block her after a while
After which she just got more and more brazen.
After which she just got more and more brazen.
See, I had started to ring the
alarm bell on what she was up to and for a while she lost quite a number of patrons.
So she got to
work.
I had made the faux druzy Valentine Day's hearts.
She made druzy – including pink
hearts.
She made my faux pink quartz in Pardo (messed up the colors again,
Pardo requires some expertise in colors). Applied that one to making “faux
calcite” too.
How do I know the
technique she used? Experience, my friends. Ask my sponsors and my friends. I have yet to
find the thing that I can’t figure out how it was made. No, I naver purchased
tutorials. I never needed to. As conceited as it may sound, I will figure out
how something was done, sooner or later. And trust me, I can definitely
recognize my own techniques.
And every freaking time she fed her patrons her “experiments” as rewards
because now, of course, why not call fails “experiments’ because they’d swallow
anything just to be my patron”, right, sweetcheeks?
And now she created “Petoskey stone” using EXACTLY my tutorial but just replacing the scrap clay by making those colors with raw clay. I’m amazed she didn’t
try to sell it to you as she did with so many things you can find for free (or
for cheaper) in other places. Could I file a copyright infringement claim with youtube? Certainly. The Fair Use Act states "changed in a way that would be determined to have modified the original beyond reasonable doubt". Which is not the case.
That tutorial is already added to her marketing campaign. Because, of course, the cha-ching is there, so she can keep up her “I’m the best” so more subscribers can fuel the ad revenue on the youtube channel and more patrons can be attracted on Patreon. It’s not about you. It was never about you. Yes, you can’t see any more rude comments she made left and right, she deleted them.
That tutorial is already added to her marketing campaign. Because, of course, the cha-ching is there, so she can keep up her “I’m the best” so more subscribers can fuel the ad revenue on the youtube channel and more patrons can be attracted on Patreon. It’s not about you. It was never about you. Yes, you can’t see any more rude comments she made left and right, she deleted them.
So, now I decided, why not join the game myself? I will get
each and every one of HER tutorials and do it MY way. I don’t need to copy. I
am an artist. I can come up with several ways of doing something, always.
So I’ll take each and every one of them – the free as well as the paid ones, and make free tutorials for them, with MY techniques. Because, see, that’s the deal. I CAN do everything she does. Well, sometimes I might have to budget to buy a more expensive thing, because I don’t come in your face 4 times a video and 10 times a day to tell you how awesome I am and how you must become my patron because I make such great tutorials – as long as I have pretty much what I need to make my tutorials, I’m good. But she CAN'T do everything I can. Because she doesn't have the knowledge and experience. Bummer.
And you know what's the funny part? I had absolutely no intention of doing all that. I had my own plan of tutorial schedule (because from my former teaching profession, I have the habit of actually planning that). And it didn't include any of her stuff. At least not for a loooong while. On top of it, most of it I wasn't even going to make public. because generally I don't post public tutorials on what most artists have paid tutorials out. But now if that's how she wants to play the game, let's play it.
Let's see, if you got the time - go count how many videos she has posted in 4 1/2 years teaching you new things and how many videos she has posted teaching you basic techniques. And how many of those were free.
Now go count how many videos I have posted in 10 1/2 MONTHS teaching you new things. how many teaching basic techniques and how many of those were free.
And hopefully you'll have the whole picture. Why the greed for "cha-ching" felt treatened by my channel.
So I’ll take each and every one of them – the free as well as the paid ones, and make free tutorials for them, with MY techniques. Because, see, that’s the deal. I CAN do everything she does. Well, sometimes I might have to budget to buy a more expensive thing, because I don’t come in your face 4 times a video and 10 times a day to tell you how awesome I am and how you must become my patron because I make such great tutorials – as long as I have pretty much what I need to make my tutorials, I’m good. But she CAN'T do everything I can. Because she doesn't have the knowledge and experience. Bummer.
And you know what's the funny part? I had absolutely no intention of doing all that. I had my own plan of tutorial schedule (because from my former teaching profession, I have the habit of actually planning that). And it didn't include any of her stuff. At least not for a loooong while. On top of it, most of it I wasn't even going to make public. because generally I don't post public tutorials on what most artists have paid tutorials out. But now if that's how she wants to play the game, let's play it.
Let's see, if you got the time - go count how many videos she has posted in 4 1/2 years teaching you new things and how many videos she has posted teaching you basic techniques. And how many of those were free.
Now go count how many videos I have posted in 10 1/2 MONTHS teaching you new things. how many teaching basic techniques and how many of those were free.
And hopefully you'll have the whole picture. Why the greed for "cha-ching" felt treatened by my channel.
Two more things and I’ll try to be short.
The whole internet marketing campaign, use of advertising and buying likes, views and subscribers.
There are several websites where you can observe a youtube
channel’s growth. It stands to reason and logic, that when a channel presents
interesting stuff, it will have an organic growth.
When it uses “marketing campaigns” (including those ones
where you can buy all kinds of subscribers and views and likes) you have
a sharp increase In the number of views or subscribers that do not correlate to
any new activity on their channel. As in , all of a sudden, several thousand
people got an email “go subscribe to this channel because”.
Let’s take, for example, socialblade.com
10 months from her start – she had 14 videos, under 2k
subscribers and under 100k views. (“work harder”, eh?)
Yes, I have scribbled out the name even if it’s public
information. You can go check this for yourself, http:/www.socialblade.com. put
in her name in the search bar, then scroll down and click on the “view full
monthly report”. Notice how the “total views” starts suddenly growing? If you
go check, none of those growths correspond to new activity until much, much
later after the marketing campaign started having the result of legitimate
views and subscribers and all that.
Compare to mine. Mine shows just the organic growth of a
normal channel without advertising – and the dips in views I had when either I
was ill or my pets were. I never had the money to do any kind of advertising,
and honestly, even if I did, I wouldn’t do it. For the simple reason that with
my health, I can barely keep up as it is, can you imagine being able to keep up
with a large volume of subscribers and demands?
Second, look at the views. See how sometimes there are some
that are in minus? Youtube does audits to channels. There may be a few hundreds
here and there that may be chopped off, just a server error. But when there are
thousands, that means that youtube found
them illegitimate. You know, those companies who tell you “for $5 we will bring
you 2,000 views and 500 subscribers!”. Yea, those.
Also – you can’t do it on this image, but if you just want
to have fun, go to the actual socialblade site, hover with your mouse over
those highs in the “no. of subscribers” and “no of views” to find the date, and
then see if there’s any activity on sweetcheeks’ channel to warrant those
spikes.
And if you still wonder how can she get all that – well, simple.
1. How many ads you see on her tutorials? Look at the projected daily, monthly
and yearly revenue from that – I know, that would make any subscriber
important, not just her patrons, because those bring money too. Add to that the
Patreon.
And the last thing.
I will just throw in here a few links. Check them. See if
you find anything familiar.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/LeggendeSegrete?section_id=10760332
https://www.etsy.com/listing/53941246/imitative-beach-pebbles-pt2-ryolite
https://www.etsy.com/listing/95684760/flexible-crackle-techniques-for-polymer (I guess she really likes Tina)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/53941246/imitative-beach-pebbles-pt2-ryolite
https://www.etsy.com/listing/95684760/flexible-crackle-techniques-for-polymer (I guess she really likes Tina)
I know, I know, "coincidences", "so what if she got inspired" "that proves nothing". tehehe.
I could give you even more links.
But at this point,
especially with what has been going on in the past two months, I don’t think I
need to. One thing is clear: copying= good result; own experimentation = fail
that the patrons will eat as “experiments”. Big name will go on due to association with those specific techniques she copies because money spent in advertising. Result: more cha-ching from the ignorant.
Did she use this type of intimidation before? Yes, but she
didn’t have to go this long, those people caved in right away or she got such a backlash from the polymer clay communityt hat she had to back down.
Does any of you remember what she did when Samatha Burroughs DARED to come up with a faux labradorite tutorial that had NOTHING in common with Sweetcheeks' one?
No? Then you might ask around. Somehow, Sweetcheeks' firm belief is that she is the only one entitled to do gemstone imitation tutorials and goodness forbid that anyone else would try!
Does any of you remember what she did when Samatha Burroughs DARED to come up with a faux labradorite tutorial that had NOTHING in common with Sweetcheeks' one?
No? Then you might ask around. Somehow, Sweetcheeks' firm belief is that she is the only one entitled to do gemstone imitation tutorials and goodness forbid that anyone else would try!
Why did I write all this? Because she’s been asking for it.
Probably because finally she caught me in a day in which I was in more pain
than usual and I finally said “enough is enough”.
Because I don’t like to see people being taken advantage of. Especially the beginners and people who are ignorant on certain areas. Because all she does is to take other people's techniques, copy them, then feed them to you for money. Including the different versions in blue, green, yellow, polka-dot, etc. Try and count with how many actual things, taken down to the basics, without counting the various variants in which she just changed the ink color, she taught you.
Because I really despise the fact that I am working hard - and for me working hard is way harder than for a normal person due to my disabilities - to share what I know for free - the same as did all the other artists she stole from (well except for Leggende Segrete, that labradorite tutorial is for sale on Etsy, she just changed the colors), and then she turns around and steals that and makes money from it just because people have no idea what she's doing.
Because I really despise the fact that I am working hard - and for me working hard is way harder than for a normal person due to my disabilities - to share what I know for free - the same as did all the other artists she stole from (well except for Leggende Segrete, that labradorite tutorial is for sale on Etsy, she just changed the colors), and then she turns around and steals that and makes money from it just because people have no idea what she's doing.
Because I wanted to open your eyes – both on what is going
on, on how it got here, on how is the mentality of an East European and why using
intimidation tactics on a disabled cancer survivor elderly woman is perfectly justifiable in
their eyes and not at all shameful or despicable.
I wanted for you to be aware of what will follow.
I wanted for you to be aware of what will follow.
I know, the cronies will be “she’s jealous that’s why she
did this”.
Well, let me get your priorities straight.
For one, you mean
“envious”. “Jealous” is when you’re afraid someone might take what is yours. “Envious”
is when you’re coveting what someone else has. The only thing I would covet to
ANYONE would be their health.
By the time I was her age, I had already won several
beauty pageants, traveled half of Europe, had more education time under my belt (8 years of Art School, University, 2 Masters of Science and 4 BA) than
she’ll ever be able to have, was a financially independent woman (from
business, not art). Right now, I still know more than she will ever do, I am
more talented than she is (maybe not always as good as a technician as my hands
don’t work that good anymore), there is NOTHING she has that I would covet.You can call me conceited all you want, it's just the plain truth, and I've never had self-image or self-confidence issues, or tried to avoid showing that yes, I know a lot of things, just for people to like me better.
I
didn’t open the channel for fame, or for money (doh, I am not monetizing, dur
dur) and if you noticed, in most of my video tutorials I forget to mention even
“omg come be my sponsor I got so much cool stuff to give you gimme yo money). I’ve
put information in the description by default, so it would be there
automatically when I upload something because otherwise I forget. In 10 months only, I've shown you 10 times more things (for free!) than she has shown you in over 4 years.In fact, if you had a brain, you'd realize I am trying to do something for YOUR good. But if the sweetness of being a groupie feels better, by all means, go ahead.
So now you know exactly what you’re dealing with. And most
importantly WHO you’re dealing with.
I didn’t start this game. I tried to stop it. But now I’m
in.
Because, after all, YOU will be the ones who will win the
most. You’ll get so many free tutorials, eh?
*chuckle*
And me, I’ll be able to teach you even more of what I know
or can come up with before my time comes and I can’t do it anymore.
Because after all that is all I wanted to do. Be left alone, so I can struggle through my daily health issues and pain and bring you what I know, at my own, slow pace. Until my hands completely stop working or the spots on my bones that the oncologist is "actively watching" start growing and I'll have to go back in the cancer treatment journey to Hell, and I won't be able to do this anymore.
And horrors! I planned to do most of it, for free.
P.S. Now watch how she's going to come up with a "new" rainbow moonstone trying to figure out what I did to those cabochons in the "let's play a game" video. I posted that for this exact reason. You might see "pink rainbow moonstone", "blue rainbow moonstone", "violet rainbow moonstone" fed to you as your monthly perk if you're one of her Patreon patrons.
And also, she'll do new and improved "larimars" and who knows, even new "blue labradorites"
EDIT: I couldn't be more grateful to sweetcheek's little Romanian troll who came to rage and rave to me about how do I dare to talk like that about East Europeans, then, when I told her to go back to her idol, she did exactly that. And started a "happenstance" conversation with sweetcheeks in the comments of her Petoskey stone tutorial (oh, the irony) talking about this post. I guess the goal of that "happenstance" convo was to somehow paint me bad and paint sweetcheeks with awesome colors, but the result was that sweetcheeks did nothing else but confirm almost everything I've posted here, including the fact that she's got her eyes like a hawk on both my channel and my facebook page.
I'm still a bit confused on how it would be possible to "copy her Navajo" and "treat her like an ignoramus" at the same time. Because, of course, she holds the monopoly on Navajo jewelry too and anyone who would try to educate people on how to actually do things right isn't allowed to. Honestly I'm half tempted to point the local Native American silversmiths to her channel.
And all ending with the opus of glory of the little Romanian troll who was so pissed that I was "talking trash about East Europeans"... insulting an elderly lady.
I rest my case.
Edit 2: is anyone amazed that now she's going for my faux Pietersite desperately trying to replicate the cabochons I've shown on my facebook page quiz HERE, the one that started her frenzy of "upping me up"? I'm not.
Edit 3 on June 4. 2018 - I guess that following me finally posting what I threatened for a while that I will post, if she doesn't stop - talking about a faux labradorite and faux rainbow moonstone tutorials - she got berserk and now is posing in the victim that is "bullied" and is trying desperately to have me shut down. Because, of course, if I get shut down she won't have to worry about someone who is a rival (in her mind) to the title of "queen of faux gemstones".
Well, guess what, Sweetcheeks? Even if you are able to manipulate so many people into believing your lies, it takes a bit more than that to bring me down. Because there are many who DO know the other side of the story, not just yours. You made people believe that someone who has posted more content in a year than you did in 4 1/2 years would have anything to covet from you. I am amazed though that there are such a high number of people who aren't able to put two and two together and figure out what you're up to.
And guess what? For every nasty message and comment your cronies posted (I got them all nicely screenshotted for potential legal action) I got double the amount of messages that congratulate me and compliment me. There. Gnaw on your liver that your campaign didn't have the desired result.
Also, I went ahead and copyrighted all the content on my website. That includes the videos that are embedded in articles. Your move.
Edit June 11, 2018
Apparently Bakulina filed a copyright infringement on the live video where I showed you how to make yellow calcite using Pardo jewelry clay. With MY technique. That I had shown previously in my faux pink quartz, faux pink aquamarine and faux jade. That she copied, changed colors and posted on her Patreon and her Etsy. Yes, remember that faux pink quartz? The same that she submitted to Polymer Week Magazine, that, not being an electronic issue, I can't file a DMCA takedown.
Now you see that everything I have told you all along, especially desperately attempting to make me give up and to shut me down, is being proved by Bakulina herself?
Edit June 13 2018
Because after all that is all I wanted to do. Be left alone, so I can struggle through my daily health issues and pain and bring you what I know, at my own, slow pace. Until my hands completely stop working or the spots on my bones that the oncologist is "actively watching" start growing and I'll have to go back in the cancer treatment journey to Hell, and I won't be able to do this anymore.
And horrors! I planned to do most of it, for free.
P.S. Now watch how she's going to come up with a "new" rainbow moonstone trying to figure out what I did to those cabochons in the "let's play a game" video. I posted that for this exact reason. You might see "pink rainbow moonstone", "blue rainbow moonstone", "violet rainbow moonstone" fed to you as your monthly perk if you're one of her Patreon patrons.
And also, she'll do new and improved "larimars" and who knows, even new "blue labradorites"
EDIT: I couldn't be more grateful to sweetcheek's little Romanian troll who came to rage and rave to me about how do I dare to talk like that about East Europeans, then, when I told her to go back to her idol, she did exactly that. And started a "happenstance" conversation with sweetcheeks in the comments of her Petoskey stone tutorial (oh, the irony) talking about this post. I guess the goal of that "happenstance" convo was to somehow paint me bad and paint sweetcheeks with awesome colors, but the result was that sweetcheeks did nothing else but confirm almost everything I've posted here, including the fact that she's got her eyes like a hawk on both my channel and my facebook page.
I'm still a bit confused on how it would be possible to "copy her Navajo" and "treat her like an ignoramus" at the same time. Because, of course, she holds the monopoly on Navajo jewelry too and anyone who would try to educate people on how to actually do things right isn't allowed to. Honestly I'm half tempted to point the local Native American silversmiths to her channel.
And all ending with the opus of glory of the little Romanian troll who was so pissed that I was "talking trash about East Europeans"... insulting an elderly lady.
I rest my case.
Edit 2: is anyone amazed that now she's going for my faux Pietersite desperately trying to replicate the cabochons I've shown on my facebook page quiz HERE, the one that started her frenzy of "upping me up"? I'm not.
Edit 3 on June 4. 2018 - I guess that following me finally posting what I threatened for a while that I will post, if she doesn't stop - talking about a faux labradorite and faux rainbow moonstone tutorials - she got berserk and now is posing in the victim that is "bullied" and is trying desperately to have me shut down. Because, of course, if I get shut down she won't have to worry about someone who is a rival (in her mind) to the title of "queen of faux gemstones".
Well, guess what, Sweetcheeks? Even if you are able to manipulate so many people into believing your lies, it takes a bit more than that to bring me down. Because there are many who DO know the other side of the story, not just yours. You made people believe that someone who has posted more content in a year than you did in 4 1/2 years would have anything to covet from you. I am amazed though that there are such a high number of people who aren't able to put two and two together and figure out what you're up to.
And guess what? For every nasty message and comment your cronies posted (I got them all nicely screenshotted for potential legal action) I got double the amount of messages that congratulate me and compliment me. There. Gnaw on your liver that your campaign didn't have the desired result.
Also, I went ahead and copyrighted all the content on my website. That includes the videos that are embedded in articles. Your move.
Edit June 11, 2018
Apparently Bakulina filed a copyright infringement on the live video where I showed you how to make yellow calcite using Pardo jewelry clay. With MY technique. That I had shown previously in my faux pink quartz, faux pink aquamarine and faux jade. That she copied, changed colors and posted on her Patreon and her Etsy. Yes, remember that faux pink quartz? The same that she submitted to Polymer Week Magazine, that, not being an electronic issue, I can't file a DMCA takedown.
Now you see that everything I have told you all along, especially desperately attempting to make me give up and to shut me down, is being proved by Bakulina herself?
Edit June 13 2018
I'm so sorry that is going on. Breaks my heart. Your tutorials are incredible. Your faux stones amazing.....far more than I would ever even attempt...even with tutorials as well constructed as yours. Cultural differences aside, no one in the art community should undermine one another. I hope you two can repair this relationship and both of you show your skills (one through copying and one through art)! Just kidding. Wishing you the best, Day.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Unfortunately, I tried. I asked her to stop. She didn't. I'm not going to roll over and play dead and offer the other cheeks. That's not me. But that's what she's used to, and (see my "East-European" mentality post) by her actions she obviously thinks that I'm some kind of third rate human she's allowed to treat however she pleases.
DeleteTrue, but the other two are quite specific.
ReplyDeleteThis "never had self-image or self-confidence issues" is why I've come to admire you so much, and am inspired by you. Seriously, sincerely.
ReplyDeleteThank you! <3
DeleteGosh. This is just horrible. Your tutorials are complete, informative, original and wonderful. I hate to see this type of copying and anger in the polymer clay art world. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteSo this is why you block me from your chats and website and the responese to my email which I will not state what was said in the email over issues that you are having with other artist which after reading this and looking at your video last night last that I would be a part off? I am a senior of 64 and will be 65 this month and I love watching different artist do their thing no matter what level of knowledge they have, I find it uplifting that see that they are trying to do something, now talking about copying peoples work it can be an issue but they will be the ones that suffers. Like you stated in your video last night about speaking up for yourself, now if I decide to comment or like what I see that is my choice, no one can choose for me. Everybody has thier way of doing things and I don't care how much they try to copy they will not do it like you. You are a very very talent people and you are excellent at what you do and this is not to win brownie point it is just a fact but I do like the idea of you thinking that I and a part of these issues. I was doing a big event one time and this young lady brought a piece of jewerly from me and the next year she was in the event the next year and she was acting very shy toward me and she used the same materials that I used and some of her designs was like mines, it made me feel great that she even want to do what I do which she could not do it exactly like l did it. Like I stated before you are good at what you and no one and I mean one can take that away!!! I don't care if I am not allow in your space but I will continue to watch and admire your work. May peace be with you and continue to do your thing until you can't do it no more.
ReplyDeleteDear D. the same as you have the right to like and appreciate whomever you so choose, so do I have the right to accept in my entourage the people I so choose. It is one thing to admire and like, and a completely different one to fall over yourself on something that you can see clearly is copied from me on purpose. I'm afraid you missed the whole point - why this is being done to me and the fact that what I share freely is taken and sold to people. Let's leave it as it is. We have different ways of understanding situations, it seems. Thank you for the time you were my subscriber.
DeleteI always wondered what had happened! At the time of it all I was having trouble with my heart meds and it seemed any tiny stress would set me off so I just ignored the entire thing. Kind of like I can no longer watch the news. But anyways...
ReplyDeleteSo sorry that you have to deal with this. I've also dealt with this type of thing in the past. I tend to be more amused then angry though. One time I actually hugged someone that had stolen my choreography in public and gushed loudly about how kind it was to know how I had influenced them so much. (imitation being the highest form of flattery and all that) Ha! Her reaction was priceless but it was public so she couldn't do much. Especially since I pulled out my phone and started showing everyone where her "inspiration" had come from with my rehearsal videos. By the end of the night you would have thought I was the one that had been on stage with all the praise I was getting from her audience. HA!!
I love your response of making all her videos for free. If it were me I would even credit her as the inspiration as she requested. Of course pointing out where all her flaws and such were. Just for the sake of making it uniquely your own, of course. ;) And being the professional you are, do it with a smile and take a bow at the end.
Be Well,
Selena
Thank you! <3
DeleteI enjoy your tutorials because you can explain how the gemstone is formed and why it is different than other stones that may be similar. You give knowledge that is very important in the creating process. It is obvious that you know what you are doing and I enjoy that. I love learning all kinds of different things. My dad has done gemstone jewelry for the last 25 years and now I am to take this over because he is 82 and just can't do it anymore. I have learned things from watching you that will help me in doing this. I still love working with polymer clay as I enjoy the creativity and also like to sculpt. I would really love to be able to show you all of the gemstones he has so that you could give me information on formation, and how a stone should be cut due to how it is formed. I am sorry that you have health problems that limit you as I too have some health problems and am on disability due to a work injury. Most people cannot truly understand unless they have experienced chronic pain. It is physically and emotionally draining as well as just plain frustrating that your body won't do the things that your mind knows how to do.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Becky! I am glad that you enjoy my tutorials. Maybe we can Skype sometimes and I will be happy to answer with as much knowledge as I can to any questions you might have.
DeleteYou are correct. You cannot fully understand it until you go through it yourself. The secret is to try and not give up. Every day is a challenge, a mountain to climb, and every day when you get up there you can look behind you and see so many mountains you've conquered.
I found your this post while searching for information about blog-related research ... It's a good post .. keep posting and updating information. thiết bị báo cháy hochiki
ReplyDeleteDay, I'm sorry that you have had to go through all this! She really is a horrid person! I have always been such a big fan of yours. And it is so obvious that she is trying to copy you. I can't stand the way she acts oh, she must get a lot of nosebleeds. I'm surprised there's no blood from her nose all over her clay! We should all go to her videos and put a thumbs down on all of them. Hopefully soon she will gets what's coming to her!
ReplyDelete