Crank it up to 11 for today's Super Skull Saturday post, skullnatics! It's my honor and privilege to introduce Tom Adams from Canton, MI to the Skull-A-Day stage to take you to a new level of heavy metal skull making. This stuff is so heavy you're beard might even grow a few inches.
Every artist has their influences in childhood that guide them down that long and winding road. Tom tells us, "As a child I always wanted to grow up to be a paleontologist and was always interested in bones, bugs, fossils and things of that nature. I was also fascinated by death. In school I was never very good at academics but had a knack for art, especially sculpture."
Tom's road happened to have the bike path from Hell on it and hence we arrive at the awesomeness that Tom has pedaled into place. "Here is one I call the
"Skelebike" that I built in 2008. It is all steel and is a full functioning bicycle. I showed it at the last two Detroit Autoramas where it was very well received and won multiple trophies."
The metal gods command that you
check out the means by which Tom transformed a girl's bike into this vehicle of wickedness!
All right! I know this next piece isn't metal, but it's HEAVY! "It's made out of an actual piece of a grave marker that was replaced due to an error."
I mean come on, it's a tombstone skull! You bet yer ass Tatman's tombstone will have a skull on it! Let the metal continue....
"Here's another one I made out of stainless steel. I like to set this one on a shelf in it's open position, when somebody touches it, it collapses and makes a wonderful metal clank sound. Not to mention it usually also scares the $#!+ out of them too, which is a nice side effect."
Tom felt the fire burn in him to wield and weld the metal to do his bidding, passing along the gift of metal to those who desired to be heavy. "Here is the one that started it all for me in steel. I have probably made over a thousand skulls in my lifetime and gave most of them away to anyone that had a shared interest in them."
He even goes old, old school and kicks Jur"ass"ic with this wrenched out Triceratops.
As fate would have it(or as the metal gods intended it), Tom tells the tale of divine intervention, "Over the years I had tried many mediums but after being required to take a welding course for my job, I was hooked. I felt a strong sense of permanency in my work. It feels good to do work in a medium that isn't practiced by many artists."
Tom gets down right hard as rusty nails with the "Termin8r".
This trip into the metal bending mind of Tom Adams comes to end, but we can't go out without thanking him for sharing all of his great work. Thanks, to you, Tom! May the metal gods always shine bright on your supply of tools, materials, and inspiration. Thanks for being a part of Skull-A-Day and for keeping it HEAVY!
I told you this post was heavy. Tom was clean shaven when we started.
