Friday, October 25, 2013

Bad Cody Foster!!

I usually am living under a rock, not too aware of what's going on around me.  My life consists of happy things...decorating, creating, gardening, animals, etc.  Most things roll off my back like so many water droplets and there's not a whole lot that gets my temperature up.  But...just now...I've lifted my rock to see what's going on out there in the crafting world and while it's mostly awesomely great things...there's one thing that's really got me going.... 

Many of you may be very familiar with holiday ornament mogul Cody Foster.  His designs are mass produced and offered for sale all over the country and are very beautiful and oh so irresistible.  The only problem...they aren't his designs at all!  And he's been getting into some real heat for it lately too!  

Turns out he's been copying the designs of real artists and designers for years, illegally and without their permission or knowledge!  I heard once a few years ago from someone that if you see Cody Foster at a trade show, you better hide your wares!  I thought it was an exaggeration, but I was wrong!  I just got an email from a very perceptive and outraged gal who informed me that he's even copying me!  Eeek!  I've had copycats before that I've nipped in the bud, but nothing like this.  He's not asking for permission and is certainly not sharing any profits with the small independent artists he's stealing from.  It seems to me that he just cruises the internet, collecting images of original artwork and sending it to China to have it mass produced under his name.  He's making millions from the hard work of the "little people".  I've long avoided having my items mass copied in China myself for a variety of reasons, despite the ease of profit I could collect from it, and it's sad to know that someone else is doing it for me against my will.  For now it seems that my alligator is the only victim of mine, but who knows about next year and the year after?  And of course not to mention the countless other artists...

Luckily, it seems that big name retailers are finally catching on and pulling all Cody Foster merch from shelves and severing ties with him.  Anthropologie, Fab and West Elm among them.  Check out this Los Angeles Times article.  Thank goodness!!  Paper Source is currently considering it as well and I would urge anyone who reads this little post to do the same!  Does that mean you can't have the wonderful (stolen) things offered in his catalog?  Of course not!  You can always get it from the person who originally designed it.  :)

The alligator is the only design of mine that I know of that he's copied...but my friend Mimi?

 She's had several of her design stolen by Cody Foster...including her awesome lumberjack dolls...

 Any adorable sweater owls.  Grrrr....


 Here are just a few more examples...


 Check out this flickr page to see tons more examples.


10 comments:

Dawn said...

Thank you for the heads up and so sorry you and other artists are being victimized!

laurie -magpie ethel said...

I have been following the Lisa Congdon story on blogs and FB lately and am sorry to see your name added the list of people copies. So not fair and good to see some press about the whole situation. Bad karma and a bad way to run your business copying people!

Anonymous said...

Omg!! I cannot believe this! Wow! I've been a collector of his pieces for years! Wow! I will pass on this info.
~Amber~

Donna LaPre said...

Grrrrr! Crystal, long ago as a beginning crafter, I had a bunch of my ideas copied by a well-knoown Boston person with a lot of capital behind her. It was a disheartening, as people (who often can't perceive distinctions so well) confused our work.
The "made in China" or anywhere else, for cheap , as a knock off, is an issue I could reinstate my activist side again for. Even so called or "genuine" Fair Trade, in the bigger picture, is still an economic disparity-maker . As I said to a customer recently, real fair trade is here when most peoples are living without duress for their necessities of life, and can exercise spiritual creative freedom to share their unique gift and contribution to the whole, in full support from others.
Thank you so much for exposing this person who is exploiting so may: the artists and all the poor factory workers, children and naive consumers!

Mary said...

So wrong on so many levels. Just shame, shame, shame. I hope the media coverage you and other artists have been shining on CF will close their doors once and for all.

Lisa W. said...

Holy smokes ! Who knew !? Well , imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery .... but you are not being compensated .... and that is VERY wrong. I have collected some his stuff - but quite frankly ... the quality of his work is pretty poor. No comparison to yours Crystal. None at all !

clarenceandoliver said...

Hi Crystal: Fortunately, I have never bought any of Cody Foster's merchandise, but I just plugged in "Cody Foster spun cotton" into ebay and got the listing below. If it is a copy of your work, it is a very poor copy, but still...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cody-Foster-Folk-Art-Spun-Cotton-Red-Butterfly-Fairy-/350445724147?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51983161f3

I also came across an article about Lisa Congdon. It seems she hasn't been "truthful" either.

http://faso.com/theartedge/66723/lisa-congdon-vs-cody-foster-what-about-the-photographers

Anyway, I just wanted to express my sorrow for these circumstances and say "Yay, for those with Intregity" in this world.

p.s. I love your work!

Vintage by Crystal said...

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all of your support and wonderful comments. It means so much to me to hear your sweet and sincere words. I am almost never the person who will say negative things about others, but in this case I truly wanted to get the message across and speak for all the other artists who have been effected.

Thanks again!

barbara said...

I've been reading about this, too, and it infuriates me! I'd like to see magazines stop featuring Cody Foster, too.

AquaMarine Queen said...

Several years ago, I took my textile portfolio to a big, big, big catalog company. Seven months later, guess what "new" idea showed up on the bedding used on their cover, with another 4 or 5 in their line? To short artists a commission or fee is simply stupid business practice. For short money they could have paid for the ideas or even hired someone to make any of those concepts their own, not such direct ripoffs.