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I had the idea of the eel decoration early on but it took a while to sort
out their details. I toyed with the idea of casting their heads out of
bronze or even casting the complete eels, but after a three week holiday,
looking afresh, I decided to try bashing them out of sheet copper (the
fins are made from an old lightning conductor in my stores and body from
standard 42mm copper plumbing pipe). Compared to casting, sheet metal is
much cheaper because its much less material - and I prefer processes where
I can change everything until I'm happy with the finished effect
(rather than firing or casting stuff when I never quite know the result
and there's no going back). The sheet metal parts are joined with a
brilliant brazing rod used by refrigeration engineers. Its so easy to use
I managed to make everything fit accurately enough to sand the joins down
to a seamless fit. Because of their position I thought it was really
important they felt smooth and satisfying to hold.
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