Fish magnets began when a friend of my sister's asked if I would create some props for a fashion show in the late '80s. The theme was Santa Fe. The models would be wearing fluorescent-colored swimwear with glow-in the dark funky designs and black lights!

Wendy wanted some fun Santa Fe-inspired headpieces and accessories...suwarrow cactuses, cow skulls and fish fossils...that the models could wear to liven things up.

One of the props I created were string fish skeleton "belts" for the models to wear that would swing and dance around the models' waists with every prance they'd make.

After the fashion show, I had several inquiries into the fish belts, which I regretfully had to say were not available and simply tempura-painted poster board "fish" glued onto tempura-painted white string.

But, the appeal of the fish struck me and I decided to develop a product featuring the designs. That's when fish magnets were born.