Paulo Gouveia looks at the scrap metal that some friends and acquaintances bring him and as he picks up the rusty and end-of-life pieces, he imagines the new shape he will give them. A few days ago he received an old resin can and from there a 'Viking' boat will be born, which he imagined after cutting out what will be the sail. "What excites me the most is the pleasure of building, how much I enjoy while I'm creating. It's not so much the final work, although I also like to see the result," Paulo Gouveia told Lusa. The metamorphosis of the scrap metal takes place in the workshop he set up in the garage of his house, in the municipality of Cantanhede, district of Coimbra, using electrode welding. This is a type of manual welding, in which a heat source develops heat and causes a rapid fusion of the base material and the electrode (filler material). From the joining of screws, nuts and washers a vase was born, while from the fusion of washers the bust of a horse was born in which the mane was built with nails that gained a golden color. The old bicycle chains are used to create key rings or to be used to help shape a ship or even a train, while decorative pieces are born from stone cutting discs or brake pads. The list of art pieces created is extensive, with more than four hundred, none of them the same. "A piece is unrepeatable, it is impossible to make two the same. I can make two similar ones, but I can't make them the same, because the scrap metal is all different, each piece has its own particularities," he explained. A table lamp can be made of tubes, a key ring of car candles or a machine gun with shock absorbers, brake discs and tubes. "In fact, nothing is lost, everything is transformed. I always end up imagining a use for what looks like scrap metal," he added. The passion for creating pieces began when he was not yet 18 years old and decided to build a boat in lego, based on a wooden base, over a meter long and using random pieces of all kinds. "It took me over five years to build the boat and at one point I decided to give up lego, but using the same method I moved on to permanent welding, which, unlike lego, can't be done and undone," he said. The first piece he built from scrap metal was a motorcycle, he was then in his early forties, followed by an armored car and a locomotive. Now, at 56, he has been dedicating himself full-time to this form of craftsmanship since March, although he still doesn't know very well if he will be able to support himself. After 27 years as an electromechanical technician and 12 working in renewable energies, health issues forced him to take a break and embrace a passion that had long been recognized by friends and neighbors. "He started exhibiting his work about a year ago, encouraged by his neighbors and his son, and the succession of invitations to new exhibitions shows that his pieces are appreciated," said his wife, Yanette Martins, who is almost a kind of 'manager'. Until the end of May, an exhibition with dozens of pieces created by Paulo Gouveia can be seen at the old distillery of the Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho, in Mealhada (district of Aveiro). The pieces can range from five euros to four thousand euros, although some are not for sale for sentimental reasons. Religious pieces are the most requested, especially Saint Anthony, along with the Templars and other medieval accessories, as well as life-size guitars. Also Read: AM do Porto rejects the creation of a memorial for the 50th anniversary of April 25th (Portuguese version)