03/10/2019
Artist Rachel Sender’s work is being copied by retail chain Flying Tiger.... 😡
Several friends have been telling me about this ceramic piece at Flying Tiger. This store chain owns no less than 950 stores worldwide and its revenue is 4.274 billion DKK. They just launched this vase (in 2019). I’ve been making this model of a Pothead (on the right) since 2015, I may have sold just under 100 of them. I make each one by hand, that’s why they look a little bumpy. I hope customers do appreciate the fact that its hand made and I embrace the unique, hand- made style each one has. It’s taken me a few years to set up my ceramic business, and I still feel like I’m not the most efficient at making money, but I do my best and depend on the sales to cover my monthly costs and the expenses of my one year old son. I can’t be sure about what happened here and I know I’m not the only one putting faces on vases and pots. But the similarities are undeniable. And the shape, this particular bottle-like shape, is something I came up with because I happened to have a glass water bottle from France in my studio that I could use as a base to build around and when I finished the piece I quite liked how it worked as a vase. How did Flying Tiger come up with this shape? And why would they make it look bumpy like that if it’s an industrially made piece? I would have been happy to collaborate with a huge brand like this to come up with ideas for ceramic vases. It’s a pity they ended up with such a similar piece. This has affected me more than I expected, but I will try and keep my chin up and carry on.
