Etiquette: Dos and Don'ts of the Arts and Craft Community

Many topics these days come with a “Dummy’s Guide” or rule book that explains how to act or behave. There’s etiquette for everything, even in the crafting community. 

While an old-fashioned handshake – thanks to Creative Cabbage for the image above from their line of cards – expresses trust and agreement in the brick and mortar business world, standards and practices are different when we communicate online.

It’s important to understand the expectations and boundaries of your peers, so you know what lines are not to be crossed.  Here is a brief guide to the dos and don’ts of the arts and craft community:

Misplaced Inspiration - Don't!!

Have you ever heard the saying that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"?  That may be true, but nobody likes it.  It is a major faux paux in crafting and blogging communities, and pretty much all situations in life.  Copying original patterns or designs from another crafter is off-limits, and copying content from someone else’s blog is also a no-no.  It is a form of plagiarism.  There is a difference between being "inspired by" someone’s work, and stealing their ideas.  Inspiration is getting ideas for themes, techniques and colors from another artist, whereas copying is directly “shop-lifting” their ideas and calling them your own.  The best way to gauge if you are copying someone is to ask yourself if you would be willing to show your "muse" your latest creation.  If you are worried about showing them, it’s likely that you feel a little guilty about how closely your work resembles theirs.

Spamming - Don't!!

There is nothing wrong with advertising and marketing.  It’s great to get out there and make a name for yourself, but sometimes you can go about it the wrong way. Spamming is definitely not the way to do it; it’s the equivalent of that annoying stereotypical used car salesman that keeps hounding you to make a purchase.  It will turn people away, not draw them to your business.  Do send promotional emails to people that have signed up on your website. Don't send out an email blast to every email address you can find.  Spamming is not only limited to emails.  Don't go 'advertising' your store in the comments section of people’s blogs; they are not the forum to market your work. That’s what your own blog is for.

Craft Forum Gossip - Don’t!!

Sometimes people get a little too comfortable in craft forums.  While forums are there for you to talk to like-minded people, they are not the place to gossip about or disparage other artists.  If you feel that you’ve developed a friendship with other artists in the forum where you can openly talk about your dislike for other people’s work, do so via private email.  Publicly bad-mouthing someone’s work in a forum can only invite negative attention. Etsy forum administrators have a policy of shutting down any threads where people are talking negatively about other Etsy sellers.

Photo Attribution - Do!!

We all like to browse blogs to look at pretty images that inspire us.  But, if you look carefully, most blogs that showcase pretty images that are created by someone other than themselves have some sort of caption or link to where the photo came from.  So, if you find an image on a website that you would like to showcase on your own blog - make sure to take the time to contact the owner and request their permission to post it on your site. If they allow you to do so, it’s common courtesy to give them the credit for their image.  There have been numerous cases of people finding their images unexpectedly on someone else’s blog, which leads to embarrassing situations. Avoid them by checking with the owner first.  A great way to ensure you are following the rules is to select images with a Creative Commons license which allows the user free use, sharing, repurposing and even remixing depending on the owner's choice...performing a quick search on Flickr will show you which images have a Creative Commons license and which ones you will need permission from the owner first.  Once you’ve obtained the owner's permission, make sure to save the borrowed image to your own photo hosting site instead of just copying and pasting it to your blog.  When you copy and paste an image, you are using the original photo’s hosting site to host your new copy of the image, therefore taking a chunk out of their bandwidth.  By saving the photo to your own hosting site, you aren’t using up any of the image space on their hosting site.

If you are ever unsure of something that you are thinking of doing, whether it is leaving a particular comment in a forum or sewing a pattern that looks a little too similar to your friend’s work, don’t do it.  When in doubt, LEAVE IT OUT!!  For more information on blogging and crafting etiquette, check out these helpful posts:

• Blogging Etiquette by 5 Minutes From Mom
• Craft Show Etiquette by The Arts & Crafts Network
• Photo Attribution Ettiquette by The Blog Herald

Dionne Christiansen is a graphic designer based in Houston, TX.  She is the face behind the Etsy store City of Dionne and writes at her blog Notes From Dionne.