Inspiration or Copying!?

I am spending way too much time on Pinterest!  I really enjoy looking at so many awesome and beautiful pieces of polymer clay.  I have recently pinned the following polymer clay bracelet from Pinterest.  It was made by Keila Hernandez and can be found on flickr by clicking on her name.

I am all about texture and color.  I love the "antiquing" that brings out the details of the leaves and flowers on these beads.  So I decided to make some similar beads.

Mine are a bit different in color and design but not much.  In my opinion I copied this design and would not call it an original.  Now I have kept creating with this style and have come up with these beads... not an exact copy but an inspired copy.

I used different colors of clay and different designs.

On these purple beads I used different designs and made designs on the front above and back below.

The following picture is of beads that I made a year ago long before I saw the first picture shown of Keila Hernandez' beads.  I have been using texture, antiquing and layering of clay since I started working with polymer.

The inspiration for these beads came from looking at Christi Friesen's work.  Not a copy but definitely inspired by looking at her creations.  The first polymer book that I purchased was one of Christi's books.

I asked Keila for permission to use her beads in my blog as I talked about copying and inspiration.  She gave me permission to do so but said that the idea of those beads came from Barb Fajardo on Flickr.  Barb made a similar bead in 2007 with a swirl lentil bead.

   

My question is... what is my original work?  I am not mass producing or trying to win any contests with these as "original designs" and I wouldn't enter them as originals but it raises a question in my mind. What is a copy and what is an original idea? What is your opinion?