In June of 2025 Damye Hahn, the owner of the iconic Faidley's Seafood Restaurant and Market in Lexington Market, reached out to me to see if I would be able to create the centerpiece of their new restaurant in Connellsville, The Fishmonger's Daughter. Her vision: a 20 ft long Maryland Rockfish sculpture constructed from 100+ year old copper cladding and old scalloped cedar shingles that were all pulled off of the original historic Plymouth Wallpaper Shop building that the restaurant now resides in.

While I was already comfortable welding copper, it was certainly a learning experience working with the heavily oxidized and often painted panels of copper. It was a lot of work bringing the copper back to its original "bare, bright, and shiny" state in which it could be shaped, welded, and brazed into the head, fins, and tail of the fish. I deeply enjoyed the challenge of bringing new life and eventual flame color to these materials that had so gracefully decorated Catonsville for over a century.

In order to bring Damye's full vision of the Rockfish to life, I needed to learn a bit of woodworking. With insight from an amazing neighbor and help my my family, we polyurethaned the freshly sanded shingles which Damye and her family were kind enough to prepare for me. Once I framed out the body into two sections that would bolt together, I nailed all of the shingles onto the plywood backing, being careful to create a seamless overlap between the two major wooden body sections. Next I made appropriate anchor points on the body to attach/bolt in each copper section. Finally came transport, courtesy of Damye and her executive chef who came to help load and drive the sections to the restaurant, and the install, which was headed up by the incredibly skilled carpenter who had done the majority of the finishing work on the booths and bar. The whole project was a landmark experience for me and I am deeply grateful to the Hahn family for being so incredible to work with and allowing me to be such an integral part of their new, outstandingly beautiful family restaurant.