Hello all, just thought I'd post a little update to explain what's been happening lately.

Firstly, no more beading for me for a while, as I've just had back surgery. It all went well, and now I'm out of hospital and recovering. I'm spending most of my time laid down, which doesn't lend itself well to making bead art, so I've had to chill on that front. It will be hard, but I just have to focus my attention on other things.

Like games! Finally I have the chance to work through some of the games I own but have yet to play or finish. My games room has a fold out bed, so I'm able to simultaneously play games and heal - WIN WIN! Last night I had a lengthy session of Wind Waker (GameCube), followed by a romp on Final Fight 3 (MAME, via XBox). Just this morning I was getting into some Eternal Darkness (GameCube), a survival horror I'd not played since it was first released in 2002. Good times.

The postman also brought me a couple of parcels of joy this morning. Firstly, my Friday The 13th T-shirt from London 1888 finally showed up, after I ordered it on Friday the 13th of Feb.

Yep, it's Jason Voorhees in the same colour scheme as the Nintendo NES game - the inexplicable purple and blue! I love it! I still think it's a bit crazy this game even exists on the NES, essentially a children's console. 

Anyway, I think the order got lost in the system, as they only dispatched it once I'd emailed them to check on it a few weeks after I placed the order. Coming from the USA, these things can take time, but it got here eventually. I recommend you check out their website - there's plenty of really cool stuff there!

I also fed my Amiibo habit. Having picked up a couple of new ones from Tesco last week, I decided to grab MegaMan from Amazon this week, as I needed to order something else, and he was right there in my wish list, just looking at me. So here is a taste of the geek shelves in my games room now:

I have been tempted to buy more Turtles figures (I've got a problem), as there are similar sets for the 1990 movie version Turtles, as well as the 1984 comic versions. For now, I'm resisting the urge!

And lastly, I finally picked up the Christmas present my brother got me. 

It's a canvas print of various classic Marvel comic covers. He did well, I'm glad it wasn't DC! I did think it was strange that Luke Cage and Hawkeye both have more than one cover shown, while Daredevil isn't featured at all. Not a big deal to be honest, I just thought it was odd, as Daredevil is one of Marvel's biggest properties.

A couple of weeks ago I shared some thoughts on getting spam on Instagram. As irritating as that is, it's nowhere near as bad as being plagiarised. This morning I awoke to find a message on Instagram from a fellow pixel bead artist (the community is strong there), saying an account called crafty_since_1982 had stolen some of my photos and passed them off as his own work. I tried to have a look at his account, but it seems he's blocked me (funny that). Ever the industrious detective, I decided to have a look on my computer at his account, while logged out. This simple technique bypassed the block and let me see the evidence for myself. 

So, ladies and gents, I present the pictures of mine that crafty_since_1982 has ripped off, next to the originals!

The asshole got 195 likes for my work! And he claimed to have sold it for $20! What an idiot, the beads alone cost more than that, not to mention the frame and the many hours I spent making it. So at least he made a loss on his fictional transaction!

So, what can be done about this kind of behaviour? I've decided to be more stingent with my watermarking. Clearly, having my name where it can be cropped out has been taken advantage of by a shady individual, so I'm going to have to put the watermark over the actual art. It's a shame, as I think this detracts from the visual effect, but it looks like it will have to be done.

It doesn't bother me when someone makes their own versions of art that I've done. I'll happily share designs with others, even if the design is 100% my own. The designs above aren't even my original work, they're all freely available on the Internet. I would never claim to have designed, or made something that I hadn't. What annoys me is the laziness of just stealing someone else's photos and taking credit for the hours of work I put into creating them. 

I've reported and blocked this account, and posted on Instagram to raise awareness among other beaders. Already, others have found their work on his account, and are also taking action. As sad as I am that this has happened, I'm glad it's been brought to my attention, and that I've been able to bring it to others' attention. 

And by the way, I've been referring to crafty_since_1982 as a "he" for ease of writing, but I'm fully aware it could be a "she" :-)

Recently I decided to uphold the integrity of Caveofpixels.com, and not bow to corporate sponsorship. I received an unsolicited email from a company who wanted to buy advertising space on my site. “Intriguing”, thought my industrious brain, which would have smiled an evil smile, had it been capable. Money for nothing? Sign me up! So I read on… and the company they wanted to advertise were specialists in… wait for it… novelty shotglasses. Consider me gutted. There I was, hoping Capcom or Sega had read my blog or seen my artwork, and wanted a slice of the pixel pie, when it was really just a random company with not even the smallest thematic link to my site. So I politely declined, for the good of the site, not my wallet. And I didn’t even ask how much they’d pay!

So I remain a broke artist, all in the name of not selling out and cheapening my brand. Until Nintendo calls, anyway!!

This week I’ve been getting to work on my Back To The Future collection. These will all be for sale, with all proceeds going to my Beads For Parkinson’s charity fundraiser. Here are the latest pieces:

When these are finished and framed, they'll bring the count up to 5, so then I might start allocating prices and putting them up for sale. So far it's been all Back To The Future Part 2, but don't worry, there will be more from the other films added soon!