A less than happy post

Yesterday evening I was just about to write a happy post about the lovely weekend I have had, with - finally - lots of sun and great progress, and to show off my new lot of embroidered pendants, when... well, things balanced out.

I have gotten used by now to keep bumping into my photos of my work here and there on the world wide web, published without my consent, with no credit or link back to me whatsoever, or even posted as someone else's work. On all these occasions, I have privately contacted whoever posted them and kindly asked them to give proper credit or remove my photos from their postings. And so they did.

But yesterday's story is different, and here it is in short:

I was surprised to find all the photos of my Dimensional Daisies (all the ones I have posted here on my blog AND the ones that are part of my online class) on a very popular page called Blooming Embroidery Class (!!!) on a community page... Of course, no credit, no link, no nothing. I contacted the lady, asking her in kindly, in private, just like I did the others previously, to remove the photos. I could see that she had read my message, but no reply came. After waiting for a fair while, I commented publicly on her page, on the album containing my photos, asking her, again, to remove them. The reaction was that she had found the photos on my blog and was just sharing them with her friends... What? And that would make it right??? At this point I asked again, not so kindly but respectfully, to remove the photos immediately. Again, no reaction. Only after I mentioned that what she was doing is called stealing and a couple of my friends also commented that it was indeed my work and she was disrespectful, the album was removed... How naive of me to think that was all. She posted one of my photos again, with a link to my blog this time, and wrote:

"I have post this as a album but (my full name) didn't allow me to shear if any one need this design go to this link or plz inbox me."

(Note: the design she is talking about is only available through my Dimensional Daisies online class)

I am just speechless and so sad and angry.  Do I really need to explain that I have paid for my fair share of embroidery classes and books? That the time and energy spent with writing the class and working on my embroideries are mine and while I have done all that with joy, it is also hard work and it helps to put bread on the table? Really, do I?

Thank you for reading!

Wishing everyone a happy week,