08/08/2026
I’m all for businesses supporting one another. In fact, I think there’s something really special about the small business and maker community coming together and lifting each other up. ❤️
But there is a difference between being inspired by someone and copying their ideas and passing them off as your own. And honestly, it really doesn’t sit right with me.
There’s one particular business I actually used to enjoy following because some of their posts were genuinely quite amusing. But for a while now, I’ve noticed a pattern of copying other makers.
There’s a lady who creates the most beautiful displays using pottery and button flowers in vintage teacups. I noticed her work immediately because it was so unique. Then I saw almost identical products appearing in this shop.
Another lady paints the most beautiful wooden mushrooms. A maker has been purchasing them from her and then they’re being sold in the same shop as though they are her own designs. 🤦♀️
And then comes the one that has annoyed me the most.
Someone has started creating dipped flowers — and I have absolutely no problem with that. There is room for other people to create dipped flowers. But when I see flowers displayed in hanging hoops, flowers in small terracotta pots and flowers in little glass jars, it becomes very difficult not to feel like the ideas I’ve spent over a year developing have simply been copied.
I’ve spent countless hours experimenting, changing things, trying ideas, scrapping ideas, starting again and working out different ways to display my flowers. Some ideas have taken days or even weeks to develop. They didn’t just appear overnight.
And that’s the bit people sometimes forget.
When you see a finished product, you see the pretty thing sitting on a shelf. You don’t see all the time, creativity, mistakes, experimentation and thought that went into deciding how that product should exist in the first place.
There is absolutely space for everyone. ❤️
Please create dipped flowers. Please make beautiful things. Please build your own business.
But please, be creative in your own way.
Take inspiration from the world around you, put your own spin on things, experiment and come up with something that belongs to you. Don’t take another maker’s carefully developed ideas and simply recreate them because you know they work.
Some of us spend an enormous amount of time trying to create something different and original.
So please… use your own brains! 😂🌸
Support makers. Be inspired by makers. Celebrate makers.
But don’t copy them. ❤️
