For 15 years, husband and wife John and Judy Fisher have run the jj Fish Studio and Fine Craft Gallery shop on Main Street in Berlin. By spring, however, John and Judy plan to close the shop for good and – unofficially – retire, although they will continue making and selling original work to outside shops and galleries.
Berlin was a quiet place when they first opened the storefront, essentially a workspace for a wholesale business that operated as a gallery almost as an afterthought.
“There weren’t very many shops other than the antiques when we first came here,” Judy said. “During the summer you’d look out on the street, and if nobody was around you’d close up and go to the beach. You can’t do that anymore.”
“It’s gotten a whole lot busier, let’s put it that way,” John said.
John started making his own jewelry in 1972, and started selling his work seriously about four years later.
The couple spent years building relationships with artisans and crafts people in the region, attending trade shows each summer, and decided to sell that work along with their own in the building, a former clothing and consignment store.
“Made in America handcrafts,” as John put it.
“It’s quality work and we know the artists,” he said. “I call it a ‘gathering of friends’ because a lot of the work comes from people we’ve known for 25 years.
“We work really hard to kind of put a personality on the work and the art, so you see the effort that went into making it,” John continued. “A lot times the best art is effortless. It doesn’t look like somebody’s really labored at it, but it’s 1,000 hours of apprenticeship that gets you to that point. A lot of people don’t realize that.”
The name of the shop came from John and Judy’s first initials, along with the “Fish” in “Fisher,” and the now-iconic lowercase lettering on the sign was meant to look like two fishhooks, according the John.
Judy then found the “happy fish” stamp that became the backdrop of the logo. Occasionally, she said, they get a call asking what kind of “fish products” they sell.
The shop was “dark and murky” when they first opened, John said, and it took a great deal of renovation, including installing track lighting and making improvements to the front window, to turn the space into a proper gallery. Even after six weeks of hard work and sweat equity, it certainly wasn’t a safe bet that the business would last in a sleepy town on the way to the beach.
“I think the over-and-under betting line was that we wouldn’t last six months,” John said. “People didn’t understand that we were selling to a lot of other gift shops and galleries, and if we didn’t do a lot of retail we still had a big part of the business that nobody saw.”
Judy said much of the early foot traffic in the store came from children, who enjoyed playing with the bubble wand just outside the front door on Main Street – a star attraction that remains to this day.
“That could be our legacy,” John quipped. “It was a little thing that, if nothing else, it made people happy.”
He credited Michael Day – the former Berlin economic development director, now in Snow Hill – with “getting the merchants together” and helping revitalize the town, from the quiet borrow he came to in 2001, to the vibrant downtown that’s gained national attention during the last several years.
“Since the economy’s gotten better, so has Berlin, and Berlin has figured out how to merchandise itself,” he said. “‘America’s Coolest Small Town’ certainly helped.”
He believes that success is sustainable in Berlin, partly because Ocean City is still, well, Ocean City, and partly because all the downtown shops feed off of each other.
“There’s no open retail space,” he said. “Other small places are trying to revitalize their downtown and it’s hard, because shops aren’t full. You kind of need a critical mass of businesses, and things here are diverse enough that it’s a draw.”
Asked about their plans, John mimed sleeping.
“A big, long nap,” he said. “It’s been a great run. We enjoyed the heck out of it, but it’s time.”
Their work will continue to be carried at An American Craftsman Galleries and Rockefeller Center in New York City, Madeleine’s Dream in upstate New York, Grovewood Gallery and With These Hands in North Carolina and Dennison Moran Gallery in Naples, Florida, among other places. They have also sold to the San Francisco Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
“I don’t make things as quickly as I used to, but we’ve had some of these wholesale accounts since the early 1990s,” John said. “There are still galleries that we enjoy working with, so we’re going to limit what we do and take care of old accounts and old friends.”
The store’s website, www.jjfishstudio.com, will also remain active.
Picturing his life after jj Fish, John said he would miss talking to people in Berlin the most.
“It’s the people contact,” he said, adding, “This is not a business that you can replicate. You just don’t pick up the phone and order 1,000 T-shirts for delivery.
“We’ll miss all the artists and craftspeople that we’ve met whose work we sell – that’s a family that you’re supporting in a small way,” he continued. “We’re going to miss adding another helpful layer to the economy. Over 70 artists, so you think of that as 70 families.”
The Fishers said they did not know who would be taking up residence in their storefront later this year, but John offered a few simple word of advice.
“Be nice to people,” he said. “Enjoy the space – it’s a good one. We had no idea when we took on the storefront and rented it that it was such a great location. We just fell into this one [with] blind, dumb luck.”
Berlin was a quiet place when they first opened the storefront, essentially a workspace for a wholesale business that operated as a gallery almost as an afterthought.
“There weren’t very many shops other than the antiques when we first came here,” Judy said. “During the summer you’d look out on the street, and if nobody was around you’d close up and go to the beach. You can’t do that anymore.”
“It’s gotten a whole lot busier, let’s put it that way,” John said.
John started making his own jewelry in 1972, and started selling his work seriously about four years later.
The couple spent years building relationships with artisans and crafts people in the region, attending trade shows each summer, and decided to sell that work along with their own in the building, a former clothing and consignment store.
“Made in America handcrafts,” as John put it.
“It’s quality work and we know the artists,” he said. “I call it a ‘gathering of friends’ because a lot of the work comes from people we’ve known for 25 years.
“We work really hard to kind of put a personality on the work and the art, so you see the effort that went into making it,” John continued. “A lot times the best art is effortless. It doesn’t look like somebody’s really labored at it, but it’s 1,000 hours of apprenticeship that gets you to that point. A lot of people don’t realize that.”
The name of the shop came from John and Judy’s first initials, along with the “Fish” in “Fisher,” and the now-iconic lowercase lettering on the sign was meant to look like two fishhooks, according the John.
Judy then found the “happy fish” stamp that became the backdrop of the logo. Occasionally, she said, they get a call asking what kind of “fish products” they sell.
The shop was “dark and murky” when they first opened, John said, and it took a great deal of renovation, including installing track lighting and making improvements to the front window, to turn the space into a proper gallery. Even after six weeks of hard work and sweat equity, it certainly wasn’t a safe bet that the business would last in a sleepy town on the way to the beach.
“I think the over-and-under betting line was that we wouldn’t last six months,” John said. “People didn’t understand that we were selling to a lot of other gift shops and galleries, and if we didn’t do a lot of retail we still had a big part of the business that nobody saw.”
Judy said much of the early foot traffic in the store came from children, who enjoyed playing with the bubble wand just outside the front door on Main Street – a star attraction that remains to this day.
“That could be our legacy,” John quipped. “It was a little thing that, if nothing else, it made people happy.”
He credited Michael Day – the former Berlin economic development director, now in Snow Hill – with “getting the merchants together” and helping revitalize the town, from the quiet borrow he came to in 2001, to the vibrant downtown that’s gained national attention during the last several years.
“Since the economy’s gotten better, so has Berlin, and Berlin has figured out how to merchandise itself,” he said. “‘America’s Coolest Small Town’ certainly helped.”
He believes that success is sustainable in Berlin, partly because Ocean City is still, well, Ocean City, and partly because all the downtown shops feed off of each other.
“There’s no open retail space,” he said. “Other small places are trying to revitalize their downtown and it’s hard, because shops aren’t full. You kind of need a critical mass of businesses, and things here are diverse enough that it’s a draw.”
Asked about their plans, John mimed sleeping.
“A big, long nap,” he said. “It’s been a great run. We enjoyed the heck out of it, but it’s time.”
Their work will continue to be carried at An American Craftsman Galleries and Rockefeller Center in New York City, Madeleine’s Dream in upstate New York, Grovewood Gallery and With These Hands in North Carolina and Dennison Moran Gallery in Naples, Florida, among other places. They have also sold to the San Francisco Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
“I don’t make things as quickly as I used to, but we’ve had some of these wholesale accounts since the early 1990s,” John said. “There are still galleries that we enjoy working with, so we’re going to limit what we do and take care of old accounts and old friends.”
The store’s website, www.jjfishstudio.com, will also remain active.
Picturing his life after jj Fish, John said he would miss talking to people in Berlin the most.
“It’s the people contact,” he said, adding, “This is not a business that you can replicate. You just don’t pick up the phone and order 1,000 T-shirts for delivery.
“We’ll miss all the artists and craftspeople that we’ve met whose work we sell – that’s a family that you’re supporting in a small way,” he continued. “We’re going to miss adding another helpful layer to the economy. Over 70 artists, so you think of that as 70 families.”
The Fishers said they did not know who would be taking up residence in their storefront later this year, but John offered a few simple word of advice.
“Be nice to people,” he said. “Enjoy the space – it’s a good one. We had no idea when we took on the storefront and rented it that it was such a great location. We just fell into this one [with] blind, dumb luck.”