Kevin Reineking wants to preserve his love for Jack Daniels, so he's casting it in iron.

And when he cracks open the mold of the bottle later Friday evening, it will be like Christmas, he said.

"We spent all this time making these molds," said Reineking, University of Oklahoma photo senior, after the 3,000 degree molten iron was poured into his mold outside the OU Fred Jones Art Center Friday evening. "But you never know what you're going to get."

The OU School of Art and Art History and the OU sculpture program hosted Fuego Friday: Halloween Iron Pour and OU Student Costume Contest Friday evening.

Students from the OU School of Architecture, who casted plaques for a gate project assigned every year, along with students from East Carolina University, University of New Mexico and Oklahoma State University assisted in the pour.

The iron pour occurs at least once a semester with community members, like Gary Tresemer, whose son Mick, OU sculpture junior, is participating in the pour, flocking to observe the blazing, orange, liquid metal being poured into the molds.

"I've never seen this before. It looks pretty dangerous," said Gary, as he backed away from the iron slowly flowing from a large bucket into the mold. Any overflow was quickly topped by sand.

"But it looks like he's staying away from the dangerous activity," he said.

Tresemer said Mick's design is comprised of stacks of crescents arranged in a circle that his wife, Mikie, hopes will become art for her garden.

The students completed a process of making a mold around their chosen object using a resin bonded sand that can withstand the heat of the molten iron.

A hollow cavity is formed in the mold, which resembles a dark red cinder sand block, where the object exists. The students then extract this object, so there is then a hollow form encapsulated in the sand.

This is the cavity the students must design an entrance for the molten iron to flow into, so the object can be casted.

"It provides an audience a real fascination to see a process that developed the Industrial Revolution," said Jonathan Hils, OU associate professor of contemporary sculpture at the School of Art and Art History. "I mean, this is what made our contemporary society happen. It's an ancient process. These furnaces used to be built on the side of hills."

But for Leon and Kris Risenhoover of Luther, this process is a regular occurance.

Since Leon is constructing a one-eighth scale, steam locomotive from scratch as a hobby, the couple frequently has iron pours in their backyard.

"It's fascinating. I love watching it and making my own scratch molds," Kris said. "But it's a risk. We've had a few boo, boos at our house."

Scratch molds were available at the pour for the public to create their own piece of metal art.

Hils said the process incorporates not just creativity but chemistry, to heat the furnace hot enough to melt the metal, and engineering.

It also breaks down the misconception of art as an individual effort, and as he put it, the wacky artist hidden in a loft being a "genius."

A team of 15 people, clothed in hard hats with plastic face masks and coats for protection, assisted in the pour, including melting the iron, pouring it into the mold and stifling any overflow with sand.

"It's a spectacle for people to see it done on a very small-scale and see the intensity of the heat and all the work and team work that goes into the pour," Hils said. "It's an intense experience."

Nanette Light 366-3539 pop@normantranscript.com