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Hooray capitalism!
Hooray capitalism!
Her husband Harry could not be reached for comment.
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One would hope that she'd just move on. Also, I nearly snorted the water I was drinking when I got to \"QUEEN DUCHESS TEAPOT HABERDASHERY!! RULER OF ALL!! PARTY OF ONE!!!\"
That will teach me to watch when I'm drinking things, even when reading Consumerist.
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I read \"beadmaker\" as \"breadmaker\" and was really confused.
Man, I need more caffiene.
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@Geekmom: I read it correctly as beadmaker because I like and respect beads. If given the chance, I would trade a moderately large island for some particularly good ones.
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@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: If you've got a moderately large island in the new world, I'll swap you $26 worth of pretty beads.
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@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: Do you own said moderately large island? If so, I will find you good beads to trade. As far as the \"respect\" for beads, once they're yours, you can do what you want with them.
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@Trance1861: I definitely read it as \"breadmaker\" as well, and did a \"baroo?\" because the photo was not a loaf of cinnamon raisin.
While ordinarily reselling would be perfectly acceptable, Etsy has certain rules pertaining to items being handmade by the seller.
@Savannah Kraemer: Etsy is (unfortunately) a-okay with reselling supplies, even if they're mass manufactured. It makes absolutely no sense, given their mission statement.
But that doesn't excuse fraud -- which is what we're looking at when someone is buying and reselling the handmade work of someone else and claiming that they made it. I sell handcrafted books, and my buyers are welcome to purchase them for personal use or to resell. They're not welcome to tell others that they made them. I made them.
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@kateblack: Do you do blank journals or do you do fancy versions of printed books ala the first few copies of Beetle the Bard?
@Rectilinear Propagation: I handbind artist's journals and blank albums, as well as zines with my original content.
I do work with other artists who want small editions of work bound, but those would be for sale via those artists.
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Wait, a fraud was not only identified by others, but actually acknowledged as such and banned by Etsy? I'm stunned!
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I have no idea what is going on in this story.
What the hell is Etsy?
@JustinSane07: [etsy.com] . It's a website where you can buy handmade items directly from the makers.
@kateblack: So she was buying stuff from people on Etsy, or wherever, then turn around and selling them on her own store for a higher price?
Hmmm. Probably against Etsy's rules and all, but I love capitalism.
@JustinSane07: If you buy something, you have a right to resell it.
If you buy from an artist, you're allowed to resell their work. You do not have a right to commit fraud to your buyers (and against the original artisan) by claiming that you created the work.
Looks like someone's found a way to bead her at her own game.
It is not ok to buy an artist's work and resell it as having been made by you. Artists have copyright laws protecting what they produce.
You can't buy books and then say you wrote them. You can't buy paintings and say you painted them and you can't by artisan beads and say you made them.
@Kevan Moran Aponte: Copyright laws don't protect against misrepresentation. When someone makes a misrepresentation in commerce, it's fraud, not copyright.
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Normally reselling something for a higher price than you bought it for would be perfectly fine. The problems with what this woman was doing seem to be:
1) Consumer fraud, in that she was passing off other people's products as being made by herself. Even if reselling would be fine if she were up front about it, what she was doing is fraudulent because to some buyers the product might have higher value if it's bought directly from the original artist. Some people are willing to pay more for something original than for something mass marketed by a distributor.
2) Violating artist copyrights, again by lying about the origin of her products rather than acting as a simple and honest distributor.
3) Possibly violating ToS on various sites. You've got the right to resell, but not necessarily everywhere if their terms of service indicate that it has to be original.
4) The unethical/harassing behavior described here.
All in all, she sounds like a winner.
@maex: Representing her work as her own when it really isn't is fraud. It doesn't have anything to do with copyright.
\"First sale\" means that when someone owns an object in which there is an underlying copyright in the subject matter, that person can sell the object without violating copyright. For example, if I own a CD of a Beatles album, I am welcome to sell that CD (the physical object). Copyright in the music is not transferred (obviously) and the Beatles (or whoever owns the copyright) can't say that I have violated their copyright for selling a physical CD. If I had an oil painting, I can sell the physical painting without transferring copyright and all of its privileges, too.
Now, if I tell everyone that I wrote the songs on the Beatles CD or painted the oil painting when I really didn't, that's fraud, but not a copyright violation (meaning: a violation of a copyright holder's exclusive rights).
The woman in the bead situation exercised her ability to sell the physical object of a copyrighted subject matter that she owned. She misrepresented where it came from. It's fraud, not a copyright violation.
Maybe I shouldn't have brought up first sale. It was the only thing I could think of when johnva mentioned the copyright violations.
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@johnva: She's also specifically claiming Italian origin, and there's a glass tradition there that's likely to add perceived value to what she's selling.
But really, it's the craziness that makes it art.
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@floraposte: exactly I what I responded to another comment with. She is committing fraud by having the beads seem to be a higher quality/higher cachet product by saying it was made it in a \"private glass studio in Milan Italy\".
Wow she's going all out on her fake blog. What a nutter.
As someone who is being tortured and stalked by this woman, I can honestly say that my day has suddenly got SO much better!
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@Lydia Muell: Wow - I read through the \"fraud\" blog and that is about 73 shades of batshit crazy. I'm sorry that you're going through any of that. Frankly, the obsession with the PayPal business account is a little scary.
I'm sorry that it's impacted your creativity. That's the awful part. Best of luck pursuing your rightly earned remedies!
@Lydia Muell: Gah, I hope you get her off your back soon, as well. She's... insane. Didn't her whole fiasco happen years ago?
@juri squared:
Thank you Jury. I hope so too. I'm definitely working on it. Whoever reported this deserves as big a hug as Chris does!
@Trance1861: Me 10. I initially thought, \"Jesus, remind me not to f*ck with those breadmakers.\" Then again, that may still be true. Breadmakers could be the toughest SOB's in the Flour Economy.
She probably shoves all the hand made beads up her ass before reselling them. She tried with her cookies but that just resulted in a FAIL.
Should be renamed \"Ulija C---ts\".
Anyway, as a fan of Etsy and handmade, I'm glad to see this brought to light, as she's been trying the best she could to ruin other people's legitimate businesses with her \"investigations\".
QUEEN DUCHESS TEAPOT HABERDASHERY!! RULER OF ALL!! PARTY OF ONE!!!
Sounds like the stuff written all over the Dr. Bronner's label.
@utensil42: FULL-TRUTH, GOD'S LAW, SHALL MAKE YOU FREE! All-One! Absolute cleanliness is Godliness!
...the soap's actually really good though.
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@Divals:
That sounds like that book written by that crazy religious woman that is in all caps, the one she was selling on Amazon for $100. I looked at that on their site and it burned my eyeballs.
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I was just reading about this over on Etsy, as well as several non-Etsy blogs. This chick is seriously mental. As one person mentioned, rarely does someone encounter a person with such an appropriate surname.
For those so inclined, here's a small sampling of this lunatic:
[annaliisa.vox.com] read the comments
[moreglassmusings.blogspot.com]
[www.artfire.com] Artfire current
[www.artfire.com] artfire current
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Ah, I learned of this craziness from a beadmaker who shall remain anonymous.
I think some sellers are offering a discount if you find their store through her \"investigations\" and mention that \"Ullja is nuts\" at checkout.
this nutcase has bought my beads , claimed she did not receive them and then filed a paypal claim against me.
Fortunatly for me \"stupid\" already listed MY beads in her shop. Yes, those beads she didn't receive... she was selling them during her paypal claim against me.
Off course paypal ruled in my favor. She sold many of my beads claiming they were made by her, and after paypal refunded me my hard earned money I got a nice little message from Ullja telling me she hoped I had to spend the money on the illness of my kids.
This woman is a bad baked fruitcake.
Suzanne
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She is the singular form of the derogatory pronunciation of her name.
Hah.
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What is it about the world of handcrafted art and design that attracts not just plagiarists and fraudsters, but barking nutter butter plagiarists and fraudsters? Some of the most spectacularly dramatic conflagrations I've stumbled over the past few years have involved things like dress designs, beads, and so on.
Is it knowing they have no creative ability of their own? Is it getting caught? Or is it a combination of both that sends them over the edge?
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I don't know about you all, but putting a \"licensed and fully insured bakery\" right on your front page just screams scam.
You know what, this woman's the weirdest lunatic I've ever heard of, online, since eBay's \"Fire Liar\", a woman with a lot of money who created her own fire company in rural Yavapai County, AZ... and didn't think she needed to pay for shipping on eBay. Some crusaders created websites trying to bring her craziness to the attention of local authorities. [web.archive.org]
Nothing happened. Well, until two years later when it turned out that \"Donna,\" who used the handle \"femfirechief,\" was actually a man who had adopted a woman's identity and apparently started a pissing match with the nearest fire department... which was about three blocks away. [www.firegeezer.com] ... this is where the shit gets scary. \"Donna\" would go out on runs though she had no background in firefighting. And she was collecting license plates and personal information about various personnel and threatening them.
So... seriously... people who know this bead lady, start recording her harassment, and encourage local law enforcement to start collecting materials. It's the only way to stop creepy people like that.
I sure wish I could get Etsy to ban someone who's selling cheesy acrylic versions of a blanket of mine that was published in Interweave Crochet magazine Spring 2006.
She told me to \"get over yourself, sweetheart\".
She won't take it down and neither will they.
Maybe I really just want someone to slap her.
Yeah, I might settle for that.
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This person is absolutely terrifying. Who has this kind of time on their hands?
@Crabby Cakes: As I mentioned in another post, she does live in the meth capital of Texas. So, that would explain all the free time.
Her TaxEvaderWatch twitter account has been suspended.
Yay Ullja's wordpress blog was deleted AND the twitter account! Awesome news. Now however, looks like Ullja and her cohort psycho mother, Melek are creating sock puppet accounts and Artfire and Etsy to make purchases from sellers. Then 'report' them for some sort of made up shit, like not having a Paypal business account, because in Kuntze alternative world, that is a crime.
So sellers, if you find a purchase from Waco or Woodway Texas, be VERY VERY suspicious.
Ullja Kuntz / Melek Kuntz unstable fraudulent and wacko apparently runs in the family.
I'm glad to hear that her blog and twitter account have been shut down.
It's just scary to know that any whack job with enough time on her hands could do this to anyone.
I am SOOO happy to see this report. I was victim #4 on her hit list, and I will repeat what I said on my blog, she is a wacko! She actually tried to buy a bead today from my Etsy shop, after opening a new account there under the name 'concerned.' I wish Etsy and ArtFire could keep her from buying.
Um, has nobody noticed she lives in Waco? Former (and surprisingly some are still there) home of the Branch Davidians and capital of meth production in Texas...
just some pieces fitting snugly into the puzzle. If you are up for 4 day straight, you can do a LOT of typing.
She's still prowling. She just added yet another person to her ridiculous blog. This is seriously WRONG. She and HER MOTHER used to buy from Ginny too. I put emphasis on HER MOTHER because I have every reason to believe that her mom is very much involved in this.
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@Lydia Muell: I was also thinking that slander and defamation of character are just slightly illegal... Might there be a case against her, if all of those mentioned on her blog band together with some legal counsel?
@Lydia Muell: Is there some way to report her for dispensing erroneous legal advice? I noticed that she mentioned you were in NC, and in NC there is no such thing as being \"appraised as a business property.\" In another post, she talks about a State Sales Tax ID and the IRS, as if the whole thing is all one branch of government, and she makes several claims as to what is legally required to run a business. Seems to me like posing as a legal expert is really a bad thing to do.
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Ah the dark and deranged world of bead making!
Better watch out! She'll try to get the Consumerist shut down for badmouthing her \"original\" glass and baked goods creations.
@Packy Anderson: When you said \"glass and baked goods creations\" for some reason I suddenly envisioned a cherry cheese danish stuffed with broken glass. Sounds like the sort of thing this nutjob would do...
She's one busy busy gal. Already posted about two new legitimate artisans on her so called fraud blog. If Ullja would spend as much time growing her business as causing a ridiculous amount of stupidity online, she'd be a millionaire.
I wonder if she's remotely aware that she's actually making herself vulnerable to libel lawsuits since she's posting false information all over the net with clearly vindictive motivations?
And the Ullja Kuntze saga continues unabated, as do the rambling, untruths posted by her to her fake fraud blog.
If you lived in Waco, would you frequent her cookie bakery? When someone behaves like this online, don't you think it will spill over into her local life? What sane potential customer would want to associate themselves with someone like that? Who would even want to live next door to her? ugh
i live in waco texas and her bakery shop used to be across the street from where i worked at the time. i bought some cookies from her once. they weren't that great. she was all nicety uppity and stuff. now that i know the real truth about her i think it fits what i saw in person.
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Was she buying the beads from others then selling them at a higher price?
In a related note, I find Glass Blowing to be a very cool.
@GyroMight:
Actually she was reselling them and claiming SHE had made them. Anyone is free to resell someone's handmade beads, it's just not nice to claim YOU made them when you didn't. That was what ruffled everyone's feathers.
@GyroMight:
I think that's the idea here. Also, claiming that they were her own creations when they weren't.. probably so people wouldn't just go straight to the original seller for cheaper.
I also am very interested in glass blowing. Always thought it'd be cool. They had a class at my local community college but it was always instantly full.