I chose this section before the top lip because in some ways, I was quite scared of progressing to the lip. The process of having difficult bends and multiple smaller pieces was daunting so I put it off for now.

For the gills, I was tossing up between whether I should have rounded gills or proper crescent gills with fins attached to them. I really like the style and beauty of lion heads with the double gills and sphere attachment but I was a bit too afraid of it being too difficult and fiddly with all the little parts so I opted for the round gills instead.
I diverged a bit away from my model with this part. I wanted my lion to have much large prominent gills so it would stand out more as a particular feature so I elongated some of the  dimensions on my pieces.

This is also the part where I introduced rattan strips into my head. I didn’t think I would have enough bamboo strip to complete the rest of the bit so I thought this area wouldn’t detract too much from the heads stability if I used the rattan. It’s much softer and pliable compared to the bamboo and the support isn’t as good but these bits don’t get beat up too much when the heads shaken.