Making a Technique your Own

On Art Bead Scene today, I've posted about copyrights in jewelry and beadmaking. Sometimes, I've scrapped designs and never offered them for sale because I felt they looked too much like someone else's designs. I don't want to rip off another beadmaker even if I'm not meaning to - check out my girl Margot Potter's Manifesto to see how a designer feels about it. I don't want to do anything like what that so I scrapped "Parts" because I felt it was too much like another beadmakers.




But I did like the technique of the floppy raised dots, so I incorporated that technique and feature into the Goth Kid bead but instead of just dots at the end, I make the end a red heart (hard to see in this picture):





I think the use of the technique and feature of the floppy raised dots is a "fair use" application of a technique - i.e., this is what people mean when they say make it your own, find your own voice.


You may or may not like the Goth Kid bead and the floppy "ears" but my point was to share how you can learn or be inspired by a technique and use it in different ways.

How have you used a technique and made it your own?