Friday, April 3, 2009

Recreating the *Magic



"I'm too sexy for my goggles"

Wednesday my photography buddy Bill called me up and gave me a "hot" tip .  The National Conference on Cast Iron Art was getting cranked up at Sloss Furnaces.  I was a little skeptical but he persuaded me to grab my camera and get on down there.  Merci Bill!  I wouldn't have missed that for the world.  What I found were teams from all over the country building their own make shift furnaces in order to actually pour iron!  Birmingham owes it's nickname the *"Magic City" to its rapid growth due to the production of iron at Sloss Furnaces.  No longer active, Sloss is a National Historic Landmark.  On Wednesday night at 6:00, furnaces were lit once again.  It was something to see.  Today a sampling.  I can promise this won't be the last!

Previous Sloss posts are here, here , here and here.


Houston, we have lift-off!
( I'm thinking that was a water heater in another life)

21 comments:

Pat said...

Well, that is definitely a hot tip! I love the top photo.

I have a photo dedication for you today...

Alex said...

Hi, Virginia, great photos the first one looks like the guy is making giant doughnuts. lol. Well done.

Laurie Allee said...

I'm still laughing about "I'm too sexy for my goggles." Great shot, Virg.

Olivier said...

magnifique ce b&w, on dirait un acteur des années 1970.
this beautiful b&w, it looks like an actor of the 1970s.

Daryl said...

Cool .. and I think you're right, it looks like a recycled water heater ... ingenuity

Anonymous said...

I like my arts manly.

James said...

The top guy has that Gene Wilder young Frankenstein eyewear thing going.
All kidding aside I didn't know anything about Birmingham until I started following your blog. Thanks for the photos and the Magic city lessons.

Virginia said...

James, so that's who he reminded me of! HA Glad you pointed that out.

Bibi,
I'm flattered that you chose to carry on the Table/Chairs series on your blog today!!!!

My thanks to my friend Snapper who chose the top photo and pointed out the "circle" thing going on. AND suggested BW, naturally!

FireLight said...

V, my father was a metalurgist for U. S. Steele. I know he would have loved this post! He was the first person to take me to Sloss! I often lament that both my parents missed this online era!

Harriet said...

I agree with Alex. My first thought when looking at the top photo: industrial strength chocolate doughnuts! Great photo. And thanks for the info.

FireLight said...

...oops...make that metallurgist...those two L's get me everytime...ah..Life of the English Majors....such a burden

Rob said...

I like the circular conformity. Glad Bill talked you into going, looking forward to viewing more.

Kim said...

Love the B&W shot especially, so thank Snapper. There is something about the guy in the googles that makes me want to ask for his number, so guess I'm with AltaDenaHiker in that respect :-).

Did you get a chance to listen to the song link from yesterday? The video was poorly recorded and didn't do it justice. Your photos inspired me to put on the CD and listen to the whole thing.
-Kim

Kim said...

PS,. . .but, if he takes off his goggles and trys to sell me Oxyclean or talks about Tool Time, I'm outta there! HA.
-Kim

Marie Reed said...

I'll give a big Merci too Bill too! These are wild!

PJ said...

Oh, I love me some hot metal! Very funny caption by the way.

Thank you for the photos you sent, they really touched my heart. Lent is such an intense season and the crosses were so green and sweet. Did you make them?

Virginia said...

Kim,
Yes, loved the music!

PJ
No I didn't make the crosses. My job is to photograph. Neat effect huh??

Good news! I hear there's some art going on down there tomorrow. I"m heading back for more!

Fire Light,
Sorry your dad couldn't have seen this. It's big fun.

I'm hungry for a donut myself now!

Jane Hards Photography said...

He looks like my young friend Andy! I think this is my new fav image of yours. The other Birmingham was known as the "city of a thousnad trades" or the "workshop of the world" due to the Industrial Revolution. Fascinating to see namesake bears the same former line of work.

Virginia said...

B
That's exactly why we're named after "yours". Does that make us "sistahs"????
V

Bob Crowe said...

That top picture is *&$#@*% fabulous. It could be from a 1959 science fiction movie. Energize the gravaton! Danger! Danger!

Maya said...

Your photo captions crack me up!