Greene 16 B.E.S.T. mural sculpture pour

Thursday, July 7, 2016

By Kelly Slaven

The Greene 16 committee invited area youth to the Greene County Fairgrounds Wednesday to witness the sculpture pour. Students from 92 local classrooms helped with the scratch blocks for the project.

Jerry Masse is assisted by interns from the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum as he melts aluminum in a mobile foundry.
Halea Franklin explains the scratch block process.
A close up of the etching process.
Malea Hoffman etches on a scratch block at the all day pour on Wednesday.

A finished scratch block ready to be filled with aluminum.
Masse uses a metal rod to get excess aluminum into a proper holding container.
Masse explains how rough edges on the sides of the finished blocks are then 'grinded away.'
The hot crucible is carefully lifted from the furnace that is around 2900 degrees.
The actual process of pouring liquid aluminum into the scratch blocks.
Masse carefully smoothing the aluminum out.
Before and after of the scratch blocks.
A closer look at the part of the mural depicting the Greene County Courthouse; Indiana's First Lady Karen Pence contributed to this portion.
Fair queen winners Sam Fox and Shelby Patton contribute to the mural on Wednesday.
A close up of the section showing Indiana's favorite sport of Basketball.
A Buck takes up a few blocks of the mural.