The Iron Pour

This Friday night I went to the Iron Pour. It was a really fun event in which the metal students show off their skills for the whole school. When I got there, the main event had not yet started, but there were other sources of entertainment. There were fire dancers, food, face painting, and a band was playing music. There were a lot of people there, some of them were even in costume. Then there was a large fenced off area where some sculptures were set up. The sculptures were made of wood, braided hay, and carved pumpkins. The metal students were fueling a fire in a bin, and they kept pouring pieces of iron in to heat them up and melt them.

When the main event of the pouring of the iron began, everyone flocked to the center area. It was actually very beautiful to see the sparks fly from the hot molten iron landing on the sculptures. The sparks were glittery and looked like the sparklers you play with during the fourth of July. Some of the sculptures caught on fire with contact, and some just looked to be glowing red, but did not actually burst in flame. Some of the things were also allowed to burn, and others were put out or cooled down with a hose of water, I'm sure for safety reasons. One girl was roasting marshmallows for people for people in the audience. It was really fun to see all of the sculptures change form through the flame, and the iron pieces, once cool, took on some very organic shapes and were beautiful to see.