Alabama Art Casting, headquartered at Tannehill State Ironworks Park near Birmingham, will host an arts education event and pour iron for keepsakes during Pilgrimage Weekend March 20-22.
Visitors can come to The Foundry, an 1860's structure, and for $20,etch their own scratch block mold for a unique gift or memento. Using a nail or dremel, sculptors can carve whatever they wish into the chemically bonded sand. Some people like to carve their house numbers, others their handprints or flowers, insects and most popular...a team mascot. Scouts typically etch their troop numbers. The iron plaques can be used as trivets, garden sculptures, shelf art, door stops and more.
There's an historic connection between Tannehill and Selma. The Tannehill Ironworks once shipped its raw iron to Selma where the Naval Foundry manufactured cannons, other weapons and iron-clad ships during the War Between the States. Wilson's Raiders of the Union Army burned most of Tannehill and much of Selma in the spring of 1865.
Today, the "Tannehill iron" used by the sculptors is scrap iron that is re-melted in a batch furnace and recycled into new uses, among them: cast-iron art blocks like the one above.
Alabama Art Casting is a nonprofit organization, and half the proceeds from this event will be donated toward preservation of The Foundry.
Hundreds of people joined in the Bridge Crossing Jubilee march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday. This view is from Broad Street looking toward the bridge.
The event commemorates the "Bloody Sunday" March in 1965 and the subsequent Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights.
The Jubilee has been cited as one of Alabama's Top 10 Events and this year's speakers included U.S. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder. To read more about this year's Jubilee, click HERE.
Thanks to Christine Weerts for sending the photo!
Here's Johnny Cash, the Dog in Black!
The black Labrador Retriever mix was among the high quality "items" auctioned at last weekend's PAWS Ball and Auction benefit for the Central Alabama Animal Shelter.
With all the animals lovers attending, I'm sure he found a good home. To see animals from all over, check out Camera Critters.
So where do you go when you follow a cat on a walk through the woods on a warm, sunny morning?
Down the hill, across the fence, through a briar patch, beneath some vines, over a log...and then only the cat knows where from there!
Skies were clear with smoke near Brantley School Friday afternoon after a grass fire got out of control near the road. If you look through the smoke, you can see two firefighters at work.
A bit of a breeze may have caused the fire, which was located well off the road when I first drove by it, to quickly spread to here only about 15 minutes later. There are plenty more skies to view today. Head on over to www.skyley.blogspot.com
Daffodils that have bloomed since January bowed their heads Sunday in surrender to a slushy cover of snow. When temperatures rose, they shed tears of joy!
Sunday's snow turned birds and feeders into frosted ornaments. This little feathered friend looks like he might be deciding which is colder, the snow on the feeder or the snow on the ground.
(Photograph by Elaine Stewart)
(RIGHT) Petey (AKA Jeff Tomlinson) thanks Selma for its support of the Central Alabama Animal Shelter. The Shelter held its second annual PAWS Ball and Auction last weekend, and Tomlinson was among those who adopted a Shelter dog in 2008 when more than 200 animals were placed.
(LEFT) One of the most popular auction items was a University of Alabama football signed by Coach Nick Saban. Alumni Buddy Perkins, left, donated the football that raised nearly $500. Auctioneer Bob Green, right, holds the football that he bought.
Supporters enjoyed food, drinks and the music of The Lower Society of Upper Water Avenue band.
(Photographs by Christine Weerts)
March Theme Day is here, and my choice for a photo was crystal clear!
This crystal chandelier is reflected in a mirror at Sturdivant Hall Museum.
Follow this link for more photographs of glass!
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
(Selma got snow today for the second time in two years! That is quite rare, so on the sidebar, I have posted a Selma Snow Slideshow. Thanks to Christine Weerts for snapping the church steeple and Old Live Oak Cemetery snow photos. The rest were taken in my neighborhood several miles north of Selma. We received a couple of inches on the ground and about one-half inch more on the hoods of vehicles. The snow, however, was gone by noon.)
