"If you don't want to see your template with another person's art on it, then you shouldn't hand out the blank to begin with."

- Scott's words, but my thoughts as well.

I think it is usually obvious how this should be handled. I said "usually", of course there will be the odd exception. If you are invited or offer to take part in a series, then you should not post the model until the series is posted, unless it's like Calling all Cars or Paper Totem for example, which both have been declared "Ongoing". Speakerdog, for example, is clearly a "set released at once", so you should hold on to it.

Myself, I don't care. I have no plans to ever do an artist series for Boxpunx. I made that model to give myself something to draw on, without any of these rules, restrictions, or constraints. If you want to draw on the template, you can, and post whenever and wherever. I don't even care if you send it to me or not, but I certainly HOPE you do, so I can see it! ^^

Whenever in doubt, just ask the creator. There is no hard fast rule. Just a bunch of people, each with their own ideas about how this should all work.

Sweet topic. Personally I'm fine with people showing their designs or putting them on their own blogs before we release them included in a series (I'm talking about Speakerdogs by the way!). Anything that spreads the word of paper toys is fine by me.

With Speakerdogs we're pretty much always only releasing them in collections (except for one-off collabs like mine with Horrorwood recently), but of course, if these collections are a long time apart, some artists might not be able to wait to show their good design stuff, so I'm happy if they want to burst out already and go public, I'm an impatient chap too, I fully understand! Especially since we're about to launch Series 6, which includes designs that some people did last year! It's been too long since Series 5.

My one gripe though, the one thing I don't like, is when people do a design on a Speakerdog (or anyone else's template), put the template up for download on their site and DON'T credit the original paper toy designer, whoever it is, it doesn't harm you to slap a credit and a link online, so have some respect and throw it up there! And people who are included in a Series, which we've given our time and efforts to create, who again don't give credit or link to the proper Speakerdog paper toys site, or mention that there's a whole other load of designs by other artists, but instead just put the template onto their own site for download, losers!

Hmmm, that's all from me on this one, generally, if you want to go public with a design, then jump up and show your stuff!

WOW... I knew I'd open up a can of worms with this one!

We all want to share our art, and I wondered how other people felt about it... I agree whole-heartedly with Scott. You MUST acknowledge the original designer when creating custom pieces. In our internet world, it's so easy to drop a link in on a blog entry, or your site, so there's no excuse there...

I personally LOVE seeing what other people come up with on customs and collaborations, it's what makes our scene so exciting. Sharing work with friends and designers all over the world is incredible.

Thanks everyone for your comments and views, so far... Let's see what comes next!

PM - it's not a TeeVee... keep your eyes peeled for more sneaks soon!