Chempix etches polished 'fishes' for restaurant

Scabetti's Shoal design combines organic forms, tactile surfaces, the creative use of light and reflections and high-quality English-made materials.

This all came together in a commission, developed with architect and designer Albert Angel, for the Konoba venue.

Photo etching was the preferred manufacturing route for Chempix as it is accurate, fast, flexible and economical and it produces parts with no surface imperfections or tooling marks.

The fish were all identical, manufactured using the same, single piece of photo tooling.

Chempix was able to meet the client's stringent timescale, etching 250 sheets in less than a week, producing 7,000 fishes and delivering them by hand to Scabetti's Staffordshire base.

Frances Bromley of Scabetti said: 'In a single, quick process, Chempix was able to produce burr-free, stress-free fish, with the fine detail we required and without significant upfront tooling charges.

'Chempix took our design, digitised it and supplied finished samples in hours and completed the whole order in days, enabling us to meet our tight deadline,' added Bromley.

In the installation, the fish 'swim' across the entire length of the venue, ending in a bait-ball spiral formation overhead in the bar area.