sloss

every 2 years there is a national conference on cast iron art held at sloss furnaces in birmingham, alabama. what's a cast iron conference? well artists, and schools are invited to come together to basically celebrate the art of casting iron. last april, i went for the first time and it was amazing. it wasn't my first iron pour, but an iron pour at such a historical, beautiful, and staggeringly massive place was unbelieveable. i helped in fabricating a 9' cupola furnace, and then drove it down in pieces with a big caravan. there was a large group (about 20 or so) people from wisconsin alone. we then were able to set up the cupola in the sloss shed, just a few feet form where the actual 64' blast furnace let out it's molten iron. we also got to camp out in the sloss grounds and got to walk around the 137 year old furnaces and buildings. if you believe the ghost stories about the place, it's a much bigger adventure.

i just learned that there's a documentary on sloss furnaces that is coming out next year from alabama public television. what's really cool is that aptv was filming at the conference, and the whole group from wisconsin is in it. if you click on this link [ sloss ] and watch the trailor, you can actually see me and the whole group from wisconsin [2:06 mins into it if your too impatient]. the slide show at the bottom of this post is from the aptv: sloss website. just a sample of the beauty and incredible feat of engineering it took to create such a place.