A mindset to figure it out
Story by Josephine E . Moore � Photos by Rick Barbero
Matthew Hackworth paints wood earrings in his shop on Hackworth Lane in Pax .
One day , nearly a decade ago , when Matthew Hackworth was visiting his grandmother ’ s house , he noticed a spinner in her front yard .
The spinner was made of metal and had a painted design of a church in the center . The design was surrounded by rings of metal of varying sizes , which caught the wind and , as the name suggests , made the entire contraption spin .
While still eye-catching , Hackworth noticed that the paint had chipped in several places and parts of the spinner were beginning to rust .
This immediately had Hackworth thinking , “ I could fix that and make it even better .”
Hackworth was no stranger to metalworking , having worked at Toyota
Designing a spinner with a church cutout in the center took some time , but after some trial and error , the finished design looked better than Hackworth had imagined . People began asking for their own .
Motor Manufacturing in Buffalo , West Virginia , for many years .
In fact , he had just transitioned to working in the company ’ s fabrication department , so he not only knew what he was thinking was possible , but also how to get it done .
Hackworth said designing the spinner with a church cutout in the center took some time , but after some trial and error , the finished design looked better than he ’ d imagined .
It wasn ’ t long before Hackworth was being approached by people who ’ d seen the spinner he ’ d made for his grandmother and wanted one of their own .
That was the basis for Hackworth ’ s Wood and Steel , which Hackworth
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