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Welder Turns Coins Into "Art You Can Sit On"
An artist at heart and by education, Johnny Swing turned to welding to make a living for his family. He's a licensed structural steel welder and has worked on high-rise buildings. He now runs a welding shop in Brookline, Vermont, where he repairs farm equipment as well as logging and construction machinery.
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Welder Turns Coins Into "Art You Can Sit On" FARM HOME Novelty Items 25-6-36 An artist at heart and by education, Johnny Swing turned to welding to make a living for his family. He's a licensed structural steel welder and has worked on high-rise buildings. He now runs a welding shop in Brookline, Vermont, where he repairs farm equipment as well as logging and construction machinery.
While his metal shop work pays the bills, Swing stays in touch with his artistic side by creating what he calls "functional art", including chairs and sofas mad out of coins.
He started with a chair made of pennies. "People look at pennies these days as nuisances. I decided to try to make these nearly worthless coins into something of value."
He cast the form for his penny chair in plaster and then welded the pennies in place over the form. Once he had covered the form with pennies, it was removed and legs were added. It's not only a functional chair, but also a piece of art.
After making a couple of penny chairs, Swing decided to try something bigger, so he moved up to a nickel sofa. Using the same process, he cast a plaster form 7 1/2 by 3 1/2 ft. and covered it with 6,400 nickels. After the form was removed, he added stainless steel trusses behind the nickels to support them. While it's as large as a sofa and comfortable to sit on, the nickel sofa weighs only about 100 lbs.
Swing says the nickel sofas have gotten a lot of attention. The first one sold right away. His second one was recently shipped to a buyer in Great Britain. He's currently working on the third, which, he says, is already sold.
He's not planning to mass-produce his coin furniture, but he'd like to make more.
Swing says he did check with U.S. Treasury Secret Service agents prior to beginning his endeavor, just to make sure he wasn't breaking any laws. Going price for a nickel sofa is in the $15,000 to $18,000 range.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Johnny Swing, 191 Putney Mt. Road, Brookline, Vt. 05345 (ph 802 365-7686; fax 802 365-4902; Website: www.fasterfineart.com).
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