Metal Spinning

Thomas Pierson (Burton, Michigan)
When employed as a spinner of metal engine parts for General Motors, Thomas Pierson started experimenting with spinning small objects from inexpensive metals like aluminum. He enjoyed his work so much that he purchased a lathe from GM and began making aluminum and pewter bowls, beer mugs, candlestick holders and vases at his home in Burton, Michigan.

Thomas’s artwork relies heavily on the materials, tools, and processes of his occupation as an autoworker. To make spun metal objects he positions a thin, flat disc of sheet metal on a lathe spindle. Pressing a tool against the metal disk as it spins, he forces it against a "chuck" made in the shape the metal will eventually assume. It is a difficult and dangerous process since the spinning metal is as potent as a buzz saw. If he applies his tool too hard it will puncture the metal; if he applies it at the wrong angle, the metal will wrinkle. The antique tools Thomas uses to shape the metal have been passed from teacher to student for at least three generations; he bought them from the man who taught him metal spinning at GM in the 1970s.