Post #396461 by papa oo maumau on Fri, Jul 25, 2008 10:00 AM

I have been persuaded by several members of the TC ohana to address this on the forums. I have been resisting this for a number of reasons. At the point I became aware of this issue on the forms the hostility was in full swing. I really did not know what to do. I was angry, anxious and totally taken aback. I do not want to write an angry response which would have been the reflex. I am still very disturbed by this, but lashing out in indignation would only feed the fire if you ask me. By the way I am not yelling victim here, I am just telling you what is here.
I also want to reconcile this personally with Paipo. On July 3rd I sent him an e-mail which
explained what happened. I did not hear back. I appears that on July 11th Paipo stated on these boards that he has yet to hear from me. When this was brought to my attention I sent the e-mail again.
Here is the e-mail...........

Rhys,
After Hukilau, my family and myself took a vacation/road trip for 2 weeks. Hence my short e-mails to you at the time. I understand they were not enough for you and I am sorry I could not spend more time communicating with you in a more thoughtful manner. For myself, vacations and the internet do not mix very well. I probably should have expressed that to you at the time
I am writing this to you and not to Tiki central ohana.You and your fellow artists are to whom I want to explain. At this time I am not sure how to respond to the folks at TC. I will be taking time to absorb this.

I am no longer selling pendants of design I did not supply. They are are out of circulation and have been since I received your initial emails.They will not be seen again.
Rhys, I am not trying to pass the buck of blame on to the suppliers of the pendants. I was simply stating a fact. The bone pendants I was selling did not come from the same folks who made my wood pendants. Some of the bone designs were made in wood.
I did not appropriate, commission or copy your designs.
When I wrote “Could you please clarify which of the designs pictured belong to you or
your colleagues. I will cease selling these styles.” I was referring to the picture that showed many styles on the table. You mentioned there were more. I wanted to know what they were. I may have communicated in a way that gave you the impression that I did not receive or ignored your attachments, which is not what I meant to do.

There are numerous shops in Indonesia that sell nothing but bone and horn jewelry. The designs I bought were off the shelf. I bought them because I thought they would compliment the wood. I had no Idea whose designs these were. I do not troll TC or ebay enough to know what I am looking at.
I do not recall e-mailing you about your designs but it is entirely possible. I did contact other folks as well.
From now I plan to confirm the originality of artwork I sell however I don’t know everything that is out there and any of these shop keepers will not hesitate to tell someone that these designs are their own. The internet is there and they use it. I am sure you know it is widespread.
I will have to live with this shit storm. I am seeing this as a lesson learned. I can only imagine what you guys are feeling. I respect the work you guys do.
My apologies...BIG apologies.

Larry

I sent the above e-mail to Paipo again on July 11th. He still has not responded or addressed this here.

Now back to your regularly scheduled trashing.....