Cast Away @ Citation South By Brandy Jett and Rita Couch

On Thursday February 22, the Judson College Sculpture Class visited Citation South, the Foundry in Marion, to fulfill an art assignment. This assignment was to make an iron casting. A casting is a metal piece that has been formed to a mold. The mold that we used was made of resin bonded sand, which is scratched and carved into with various tools to form the pattern or image for the iron to fill.

At the foundry we were met by Jeff Fowler, the metallurgist for Citation South, and Jim Carruthers, the Human Resource Manager. We were equipped with a hard-hat, safety goggles, and earplugs to ensure our safety in the foundry. We were amazed when Marty Nichols, melting superintendent, poured the 2600-degree iron into each of our molds. Our artwork was beginning to take shape.

As our castings were cooling, the class toured the foundry. We were able to see the inner workings of a very important aspect of our society. Citation South makes ductile iron manifolds for the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Ductile iron is an easily molded, non-brittle metal. These manifolds are made with great precision and tested to guarantee the safety and durability of each part.

At the end of the day, we had learned much about the importance of the work done at Citation South and the process of casting metal. The Judson Sculpture class would like to thank everyone who was involved in casting our sculptures. We would like to extend a special thanks to Jeff Fowler, Marty Nichols, and Jim Carruthers for their hard work in this art project.