MCC hosts another Iron Pour

A hiccup Friday during the Mesalands Community College Iron Pour may have led to an inadvertent twist for future events - the prospect of working more with the molten metal during nighttime hours.

A balky electrical generator kept the 24th Iron Pour from using one of its kilns at midday as planned. A phone call from Mark Martinez, the college's executive director of operations, to an electrician resolved the situation hours later, but the pouring of iron lasted well into the nighttime hours.

Artisans pouring molten metal at night would be dealing with cooler temperatures, a not-insubstantial benefit.

But Bill Raney, a member of the college's art faculty who oversaw much of the Iron Pour activities, said there is an additional advantage.

"I think night is better because when metal splashes, you can see it better," he said Sunday. "You can see if the metal goes somewhere it's not supposed to. You also can see the color of the metal better. So I think in the future, we'll do it at night."

Raney said the two dozen artisans who participated in the Iron Pour last week helped pour more than 2,400 pounds of molten iron.

It was Raney's first time participating in Mesalands' annual event, which took a one-year hiatus in 2023 due to turmoil with the college's leadership and finances, which now are largely resolved.

"I thought it was very successful," Raney said of this year's Iron Pour. "We're just trying to set the tone that it's a teaching environment, not a production type of environment. It's about artists and students coming together and trying to build on a community that's already there."

Anthony Guntren of Colorado, who by his estimation has participated in the Iron Pour about 10 times, said the collaborative aspect is critical.

"Iron is something that you can only do as a group," he said. "It's a special kind of metal."

That sort of collaborative community attracted Lin Hou, a Chinese physics student from Tulane University who found out about the Mesalands event during a driving trip to Los Alamos to work in one of its labs.

Hou took the side trip to Tucumcari to work with a scratch block for an eventual mold and participate in other ways at the Iron Pour.

"It sounded cool," he said.

"Word of mouth starts to spread, and then all of a sudden people are coming in," Haney said. "The joy on his face ... these kind of moments are what makes it worthwhile for me."

Raney said he appreciated the help from Joel Kiser, a longtime supervisor at the Iron Pour who now is the college's vice president of academic affairs.

"With Joel, you have someone who gets it; he's a sculptor," he said. "He had this job, and it's rare that you have that kind of support or understanding in upper administration."

One new twist to the Iron Pour this year that probably will become a tradition is a snow cone truck parked near the site. The ice-cold snacks proved useful to hot, tired or flustered participants, Raney said.

"It polices them so they can't be in that panic because it's 'go' time. It's like, 'Hey, why don't you get away from it? You need to go get a snow cone,'" he said.

Raney said he already was thinking of ways to improve the Iron Pour for 2025.

"Right before I went home, I was already taking pictures of stuff outside," he said. "I was like, here we could adjust this and this. So I think the next one will be better."