If you’ve had your photo taken for the Foundry Tree in the last year, you’ve met my kids, Ima and Ari.
WELL…the Foundry Tree is their side hustle. Their main gig is nature conservation and they were interviewed about it by WGN!
Link to interview in bio.
Heading back to Chicago! Thanks to all the conference organizers for a great #nccciap2025. We photographed over 180 people. If I missed you, send me a pic and I’ll add you to the Foundry Tree. Link to instructions in bio.
See ya at the next one!
Good morning, NCCCIAP! It is Thursday and I'm at the Old Visiting Center/Bath House for a LAST DAY of Foundry Tree photos. I will be here 11am-1:30pm. Stop by to be added to the Foundry Tree! Or to update your photo. Please follow the sidewalk to the left to the back of the building. Official address is 20 32nd St. S, just NE of the pinned location.
Although there is snow on the ground, I’m planning my next steps towards Sloss Furnaces for the NCCCIAP 2025.
I will be at NCCCIAP at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, AL taking photos for the Foundry Tree on Wednesday April 2 and Thursday April 3, 2025.
I have been away for a few years, but I was recently at the 8th WCIAA in California and GSU 50th in Georgia.
I am looking forward to seeing new faces and catching up with old friends in the Iron-casting Community.
“We Are Iron”
Gabe
#slossfurnace #slossfurnacesnationalhistoriclandmark
This acorn was cast when the Sculpture Building was moving from it’s former location to it’s current. A ladle of hot iron was carried 5 blocks and the acorn mold was cast at 246. The planting of a seed occurred that day. Last year we cast half of an oak tree with the intent of having those on the pour floor sign it. This year, we did the same, but this time we included more students and our alumni on the tree! It’s wonderful seeing how our @foundry_tree has grown. Huge thank you goes to Gabriel Akagawa for traveling to our pour to add to Georgia State’s legacy. Check it out! We’re a hot bunch! Link is in our bio!
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#gsuiron #gsusculpture #gsuannualironpour #atlart #gsu50thironpour #foundrytree
“Lichen on Corten”
I had to spend a moment appreciating the composite organism of lichen flourishing on a corten steel bridge.
It was 82 degrees. October 9th, 2021. We spent the morning around a creek and a river 30 minutes drive south of Chicago. The water is at least 4 feet lower than the waterline. We try to spend as much time paying attention to nature as possible. I am home schooling our two children. We saw dragonflies, hawks, turkey vultures, huge tadpoles, frogs, and caught (and released) a baby bass. It shouldn’t be this warm. But I’m grateful to be spending time outside before winter comes. It feels like we are getting to say a long goodbye to summer this year.
What new worlds have we discovered?
We have a small backyard in Chicago where we replaced the grass for garden space. Our friend @miriphelps gave us a single birdhouse gourd seed last summer. It grew into a vine over 30 feet long that produced about 10 gourds. After harvesting the largest ones for drying, my winter involved scrubbing the moldy outer soft surface off the gourds as they slowly dried. I was fascinated by and photographed the many variations of molds on the gourds’ planet-like surfaces. (The first and last three pics in this post) It took a few winter months of this process to produce the final dried product. This all reminded me of the process of applying and buffing back patina from metals, but with chemical metal coloration/oxidation I labored to bring life into an non-living material. I use scouring pads and water in both processes and try to find a balance between what is there and what I want to reveal through the physical removing/erasing/washing.
The final gourd objects come from a living plant reacting with living molds that actively decay and digest the gourd’s “skin”. The process seemed to be like a slow transition to the gourds’ skeletal state. The result is a hard hollow shell with rattling seeds inside. People will cut a hole in them, often paint them, and hang for a birdhouse. I am fond of the mold’s remaining stain in the gourd and will let them hang on our wall for now.
With the gourds drying, I noticed a nurturing process transitioning away from the plant’s life through preservation. For metal patination, the nurturing is attempt at animating life into a metal object.
Eden Jolly #edenjolly is having an iron pour today honoring the life and memory of Andy Griffiths. "This one's for Griff"
A Ferrous Toast to Andy Griffiths, may he rust in peace. I am honoring Griff’s memory by reaching out to those who cast with him. If you learned some iron casting with Griff and want to be connected to him on the Foundry Tree website, foundrytree.com , please message me. Griff had a great impact on the international iron casting community. He is loved and missed. All the best to Eden and Clan McIron today.
Seeing fire in the trees throughout the United States recently, my thoughts are with friends, families and the natural world who are experiencing such loss.
