Way back in the deep dark reaches of the last century I decided to branch out and quit making imitation Navajo jewelry. I had also been doing steel sculpture so I brought in some of those elements. I made up a dozen or so pieces that I was really pleased with, very original I thought. I was showing them to a friend of mine and he says to me "Oh, so your trying to copy Albert Paley". I had never heard of the guy, seen his work or knew how to spell his name. Then you couldn't go to the computer and type "Albert Paley" in Google and get a bunch of pictures. It took a lot of searching to find even one little picture of his work in a magazine. My friend took my pieces over to ASU and showed them to David Pimentel and he too thought that someone was attempting to copy Albert Paley. With the use of the PC these days it is so easy to pirate someone else's ideas that it isn't funny but in years past you didn't have the computer, first class publications on jewelry making, books on jewelry making to gain inspiration. You either went to university, a close circle of friends or sat a home thinking up new ideas to you. So where does inspiration come from? Anywhere you want it to except from someone else's sketch book, home page on their web site or promotional literature nor can you take a worksheet from a class and make objects exactly like them for sale. You need to work somethings out for your self.