The ethics of art and reproducing history

It's something that I think of all the time. Not the dread 'copying' issue as much as the sense of entitlement or ownership over a style or design. Where does ownership begin and end? It's especially applicable to my work in some ways as I spend a lot of time making beads based on historic examples. If someone looks at what I do, skims the surface but doesn't plumb the depths of the work, is that my problem or theirs? If they copy what I have done, is that any different than my copy of an historic bead?

How much do I owe to others, do I have to share my efforts and information or am I being selfish? Is it fair to tell them to 'find their own information'? When I put information on my site about beads, do I have to accept that this will be picked up and re-used, my efforts becoming someone else's profit?

I have spent hours combing through archaeological reports and visiting museums, to find the unusual, so I can re-make them as they would have been when they were first made. Does this mean I'm just a copyist? Does it mean I'm not using my own artistic eye and skills?

No, of course not. What it means is that I look at originals and learn from them. It's not just staring at beads and running back to the studio and melting some glass in a reproduction of the bead on view. There's a lot more to it, and for me it means research into the beads as not only objects but as pieces of the culture that created them, expressions of power, status and value. A bead isn't just a bead, it's a beacon. And to understand the bead, it takes a bit more than just seeing the bead, it requires trying to figure out how it was made, what successes and failures in construction lead to that shape and what it took for someone working with tools of a vastly different style and quality to produce the bead itself.

I'm not the only one who makes beads based on historic examples, there are other people who do the same kind of work in various ways, some for their own pleasure, some for the historic and scientific interest and some for profit. For me, it's a blend of profit (this is my living, after all) and the pleasure of knowledge of construction and a connection with that beadmaker who somewhere, in some past place and time created the bead that inspired me.

To me, the research is as important as the end result. I don't make beads just to sell, I make beads to enhance the owner in some way, even if it's just the pleasure of holding a bit of history reproduced. And because of that, when I make beads, I don't just melt glass, I blend history in a flame, giving not just the bead but the story. The person who buys my beads doesn't just buy glass, they buy a bit of history and also a bit of me.