Make a Golden Filigree Dragon's Eggcase

Step 3 Coat the bound cups in release agent

Once the cups are securely joined, you must coat them in a release agent of some kind. To the local Nepalese, oil is a rare and expensive commodity, and knowing this we had brought a couple of barrels to use as payment for the many and various services we required during our stay in the area. Notwithstanding this, the metalsmith refused to use any other than his own oil preparation, which by various utterances and animated hand signals, he managed to convince me was better suited to the task than our own.

You may not be able to get his preparation where you live and I therefore recommend the use of a thin coat of vegetable oil and or silicon furniture polish, which I understand comes in small metal atomiser containers these days.