When working on an order for a coastal gallery we were brainstorming ideas for sculptures that might work for their location and clientele. We thought of a yellowfin tuna as they are a beautiful distinctive looking fish, a prized catch, and delicious.

So I added it to the list and got to work. A challenge of this piece was getting the bright yellow color on the fins and spines. In order to get a yellow heat patina you must heat the metal very hot and stop in a very narrow temperature window for it to cool to the desired bright yellow. A little too cool and it will be blue or a silvery gray, and a little too hot and it will burn to a dingy flakey dark gray. Because of this it was hard to get a consistent yellow. If I kept the torch too long on any portion of the piece it was very noticeable and I needed to regrind it and start over. But once I got the fins done it was pretty straightforward from there. Just some grind details in the body and coloring the rest of the fish, made an eye, bead rolled texture into the fins and then cold shaped and welded it together!

This metal yellowfin tuna sculpture is wall hanging, made entirely of stainless steel, colored using only heat patinas, and is safe to be kept outdoors!