The process was a means to executing a concept. My aim was to create copper investment / bullion items where it is essential that the material retains all its re-workable qualities. The ancient technique of cloth-mold water casting was the best way to do this. I submitted this work as part of my degree at Kingston University in which full credit was given to my sources, including Ford Hallam but more especially the informative report at http://shura.shu.ac.uk/971/. So any accusation of academic plagiarism is libelous.

The description of the work as “failures” is discouraging, although I think that the point of the work has been missed. People can go to the Aram Gallery to make up their own mind.

If you couldn't be bothered to read to the last line I also said we over at the forum would be celebrating his efforts had he shown a little bit of integrity. Seeking to flatter anyone by copying does not in any reality absolve anyone.

And yes we will continue to encourage and share with honest individuals and shut the door on the noses of those who aren't.

Because the modern approach includes a sense of DIY and damn everything else it does not make it an example of good work if you go it that way. Perhaps it has escaped your notice but until the industrial revolution no secrets or methods were shared in the arts and crafts unless you happened to belong, this wasn't just to preserve a livelihood but to ensure that standards were upheld. And seeing as what we are talking about and trying to do is arts and crafts it would only benefit the overall majority of practitioners if they were to observe similar standards. Unfortunately that is not what contemporary "arts" are about.

It's the attitude of such individuals that put traditions at risk, and not the ossified part of traditions but the dynamic part of it. The part that requires a commitment to the continuum and dedication regardless of what your corpus of work might end up looking like. Have you ever wondered then why so few apprentices are accepted under such hard core traditions? No wonder doors are shut to the majority because of the lack of integrity of a few. And if you think this is about my or Mr Hallam's ego you would be wrong. My personal relationship with these techniques come through Ford Hallam but at all times I'm aware of my responsibility towards Izumi Sensei and all the gentlemen who made it possible for me to have a chance to learn this, and I will always make sure that is at the forefront when it comes to giving credit.

I'm sorry if that's hard to understand to the contemporary mindset but I suppose you have to be lazy to fail to comprehend the importance of continuity. Do we want in 100 years time Oscar's work as representative of what water casting should be like? No! Do we want him to experiment and develop the technique in his search for self expression? Yes! So long as it is grounded on solid principles from which his experiments might evolve.

Failing to cite sources within an academic environment is not an oversight, it is plagiarism.

The object behind learning to cast ingots in this fashion is to create a starting point for creation of art or craft pieces; the failure to execute that technique is just that – a failure. Not art.

At best, this could be described as an exercise in experiential archaeology.. At worst, well…