This collection features all of my metal fish and sea creature sculptures: marlin, mahi-mahi, sea turtles, lobsters, crabs, jellyfish, octopus, seahorses, whales, trout, tuna, and more. Every one of them is handcrafted from 100% stainless steel and colored using only heat from torches. No paints, no dyes. The vivid blues, golds, and silvers you see are created entirely by controlling the temperature of flame on the metal's surface.
Creating metal fish sculptures is where my process really shines because of how much color matters. Take my lionfish for example. A real lionfish has these bold red and white stripes that radiate out through its dramatic fan-like fins. To recreate those lionfish colors in stainless steel, I had to work through the heat patina spectrum in order. I started by coloring the entire fish blue (the hottest color), then ground away everything but the blue and colored the next hottest color, purple, then ground the areas that would become golden stripes, recolored those, and finally came in with the natural silver for the lighter bands. Days of hand grinding with a tiny pencil grinder, matching stripes from the face through the eye and across separate pieces of metal. Tedious but incredibly satisfying.
Each species brings its own set of challenges. My sea turtle's shell required layering colors on top of each other, grinding back, and recoloring to create the kind of depth you see in a real turtle shell. The octopus was a study in compound curves, figuring out how to make eight tentacles curl and twist in ways that felt natural when the metal itself resists bending in more than one direction. And every single fish starts with the same fundamental puzzle: how do you take a flat sheet of stainless steel and turn it into something that looks like it's moving through water?
Most of these metal sea creature sculptures are wall hanging and safe to be kept outdoors. My lobster wall art pieces are especially popular in coastal homes, and the stainless steel is naturally resistant to corrosion, making these pieces right at home in environments where salt air would destroy other materials. I have pieces hanging in beach houses and waterfront restaurants that look the same as the day they were installed.
I create all of my work in my studio in Durham, North Carolina, and every piece is an original design. If you see something here that you connect with or you'd like to commission a custom marine sculpture, I'd love to hear from you. These creatures are some of my absolute favorites to create.
