At the Dubuque Rendezvous, artists melted aluminum in a fiery furnace. Photo: Hannah Nelson
Editor’s note: This story was first published in November 2025 by Arts Midwest, a nonprofit that supports arts and culture in nine states and the Native nations that share the region.
Writer: Angela Zonunpari
Tamsie Ringler moved to Dubuque six years ago. After years in Minnesota and Wisconsin, she was looking to retire somewhere she could afford a house, continue her art practice and see her son finish school.
But before she relocated, Ringler spent decades teaching sculpture and foundry in colleges and leading iron pours across the country and abroad. At these live, high-heat casting events, artists melt scrap iron in a furnace and pour the glowing metal into molds to create sculptures.
Ringler has always loved the collective spirit that comes with iron casting and foundry, a passion she put into practice during a decade of organizing the Community Collaboration Hot Metal Pour at Minnesota’s Franconia Sculpture Park, about 30 minutes north of Stillwater.
It’s about “working together with a large group of people to make something happen and supporting the work of other people as well as your own,” the artist explained.
Ringler is used to setting up foundries in nontraditional spaces, including parking lots and sculpture gardens. “It wasn’t a jump for me to be like, well, I can do that here in Dubuque,” she said. “There wasn’t anything like that going on here.”
So in spring of 2025, Ringler debuted the Dubuque Iron Pour Project.
Artists pour molten aluminum into a cast. Photo: Ronald W. Tigges
Heavy metal artistry
For three weeks, eight local and regional artists — sculptors, painters, metalsmiths and landscapers — joined Ringler through the whole metal casting process, “from pattern to pour.”
For one participant, Tim Olson, the technical parts of the workshop were a learning experience. “It took a while for it to all make sense,” said Olson, who primarily works in painting and stained glass. He cast a miniature guard shack, incorporating stained glass as windows. “I picked a pretty difficult mold without really knowing what I was getting into.”
Like most of the participants, Olson was new to metal casting. “It was great. I got to meet artists I’d never met before,” he said. “We were all working together pretty closely because we had to help each other mix the material for the molds.”
Ringler kept the first iron pour small, but is planning to make it an annual event. In June, she organized a cultural and climate forum, “Dubuque Rendezvous! A Cooler World Gathering,” which featured a public aluminum pour. She is planning on making the iron pour an annual event.
Supported by grants from the Iowa Arts Council, the Starseed Foundation and local businesses, the Dubuque Iron Pour Project offered free workshops, including one at the Boys and Girls Club, and a public iron pour at the Dubuque Art Museum.
“I didn’t really think of this type of work as being a kind of community project, you know, the way it turned out to be,” Olson said. “I definitely want to do it again.”
Photo: Ivonne Simmonds-Fals
Metal casting is often a group project, from shoveling sand into a wooden mold (above) to carving compressed blocks of sand into forms (below) for the molten metal itself.
Photo courtesy of Tamsie Ringler
At the inaugural Dubuque Iron Pour, a team helped local artist Tim Olson create part of a sculpture he calls “Four Scenes from the Life of a Security Guard.” Photo: Tim Olson
Casting community
“It takes a community of people to make [iron pours] happen,” Ringler said. “But I think we’re also all craving that, right? Because it’s difficult to get together in community.” Thanks to Ringler, that community is taking shape in Dubuque, one pour at a time.
Contributor Angela Zonunpari manages content for Arts Midwest, specializes in creative storytelling and has worked in advertising and art communications for more than 10 years.
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