Bad reactions to a DIY tutorial

Hi all, a different kind of post today.

Some of you may remember a DIY I blogged several months ago, how to make bones style Fimo bracelets. Well this week the designer of the bracelets (which I fully credited in the DIY) has sent me angry messages via Etsy, Facebook and this blog. I have also received comments and emails from other 'friends' of the designer too, accusing me of stealing her designs and profiting from them.

It began on Etsy when she accused me of selling these bracelets and demanded I stop. 

I replied asking WHERE AM I SELLING THEM? And sending a link to my DIY, saying I made them as a blog DIY and nothing else. By then, she had already posted on her Facebook page the same accusations, prompting several comments and posts on my Shh Facebook page accusing me of stealing designs.

I have today received more angry messages and so I have decided to remove the DIY tutorial.

It saddens me to do so, as I never set out to maliciously take business away from anyone. I wrote the tutorial in the trend of the many DIY blogs out there - PS I Made This, A Pair and a Spare, I Spy DIY, Honestly...WTF to name but a few.

I have been accused of taking business away from the designer. Well I apologise if I did so. However, seeing as it took the designer herself two months to notice the tutorial photos, I do not flatter myself as being a highly profiled blogger. And in fact, I know of only 2, sometimes 3, bloggers who read my blog and reside in New Zealand. The rest of my followers are global, and so in some way it could be said that within my relatively small following I actually made people aware of her work, people who otherwise may never have heard (or cared!) about these bracelets.

I was (and am) more than happy to discuss the matter with the designer, and had she wanted me to remove the blog DIY, she could have asked and I would have done so. Instead, she has not replied to my response to her original message and instead taken to using friends and anonymous comments to bully me into taking the DIY down. I think that's pretty uncool.

So from originally being WRONGFULLY accused of selling the bracelets, I am now being bombarded with abuse for creating a DIY!

C'est la vie.

I have removed the tutorial and hope she can move on. 

I will leave you with one particularly (grammatically interesting) anonymous message I received:

Ok so straight up - your a crafter - WHY would you do a tutorial on HOW to make someone else's work? what is WRONG With you???? Bedrock bones works so hard to so what she does and you are blatantly taking customers from her telling them how to do it themselves. This is not creative because its NOT your idea. You are copying someone else's hard work and encouraging people not to buy the OG ones. NZ is such a small place why would you take that away from her? I think this is absolute crap and really uncool of you - Don't call yourself a creative crafter if you do this kind of thing. Bedrock is all hand made by ONE person - and you should feel pretty ashamed of yourself dude. Her stuff isn't cheap $2 shop crap that is mass produced - its skillfully handmade with love and you should take this post down.