It began with two objects that I have been collecting steadily over the years.  Aluminum Bundt Cake pans, and bicycle brake levers.  Long ago I used these cake pans to make a sort of serpent thing as part of a larger piece.  I thought this time I would revisit the idea in a way that could stand on its own.

The design of the cake pans allows them to be cut up and welded back together in a number of different ways.  Here is how they looked fresh off the band saw.  You can see the back end of a nice old vacuum cleaner that I used for the head.  I believe the tail was part of a roof rack for a van, not sure though.  At this stage in the process I thought I would be using drawer pulls for the legs.

The pans are welded together, and the seams painstakingly sanded out.

After some failed experiments with Christmas Tree lights, I settled on six green cold cathode tubes to provide the back lighting that I wanted.  While they are more difficult to wire up, they are brighter and last a good deal longer.  There are also some LED’s in the eyes and mouth.