About Us

After originally leaving New Zealand shores between 2000 and 2003 to chase the Australian lifestyle and the big money it promised, Which we fully immersed ourselves in for over a decade,   We decided to come back home and Based our selves In the beautiful Doubtless Bay, Far North, New Zealand were we take our inspiration from the environment around us and the property we live at, to create our unique Stainless Steel fish school designs. 

In 2013 we started making basic flat fish & kiwiarna style wall hangings/pieces, With the idea of wanting to be self employed and self sufficient and to ultimately live the Kiwi dream all from home. 

Then It was not until a few years later after only making ends meats selling at our local markets, that we came up with an idea to add multiple fish on a single backing plate. Bringing them out from the wall with depth & movement like we hadn’t seen or made before. This is when things changed and when things started to get busy! I still remember taking that first piece (fish school) to the market and having it sell straight away and for more money then our asking price on our other pieces. 😁 

Selling at the Paihia Cruise ship markets and attending the old packhouse market in kerikeri, Along with the privilege of show casing our art at the water front cafe & bar in Mangonui, We were Making in the region of 484 Single Fish, 288 Small Schools and 44 large schools (these are schools with 22 to 100 fish on each piece) per season, In the cruse ship hay days. 
Then in 2019 we built our own house/workshop/gallery/Studio with the though of selling from home to compliment what we were already doing and since completing our build, We have really enjoyed showing people around. Being able to giving them the full experience & tour of how we make their custom pieces, through our workshop/studio, telling our story and sharing time with people.

We have definitely grown since our first pieces and that first year of production.

With so many individual pieces being produced we obviously have some favourites and one of those would be our large and super dense sardine bait school, were we included 217 fish with the size being 1.8meters. The uniformity of the fish flow and the real denseness is just so appealing and all you can see is fish!! Another of our favourites would be our baitfish schools which use our smallest fish, we do these in various colours.

We use heat, paint Applied with a hand brush & a Recently purchased air brushing tool to help us get the colours we wish to Achieve on each fish. 

We are able to cater to just about all needs and requirements for personal installations and have produced individually crafted pieces for a number of people, such as our first large piece commissioned, using over 200 fish in an egg shape that we hadn’t thought of and in which we have carried on with in many variations. Whatever your creative ideas are we can cater to your ideas.

When we are asked to make a customised piece, after a general get to know each other and chat.

Firstly, we will ask for wall dimensions & photos of your wall.

Secondly, we’ll get a basic idea of shape and preferred fish species you would like to incorporate, this includes colour choice, size, depth, denseness and direction the fish need to be swimming i.e. heading out to the ocean or swimming in the front door. From there the ideas float between the team and you the customer until all are happy and we get the go ahead to start making.

We like to involve you in the whole process so we, offer regular email updates with photos on progress, facetime calls if requested along with any added input that you may have. We always try to put you the customer first.   

All of our designs are made in our own workshop and we use 316 marine grade stainless steel to create all our pieces as well as Lacquer/ clear coating them.

 

Keep an eye out here for our latest developments as well as on our social media pages as we look to adding more designs which capture more movement in the fish.

 

Whether its a main piece for the home, a gift or a talking point at the Bach we can create the perfect artwork for any occasion and area.