I used small bits in a Dremel tool to do some extreme ice sculpting with this blue ice dragon. Along with soldering irons, I used the bits for most of the fine detail here.
updated 11//20/23 with the pelican video and 8/15/23 with a bit more info, new thoughts, retitling, formatting, and seo
extreme ice sculpting: fine detail
For the most part, detail on ice sculptures is quick and dirty. It doesn’t have to be perfect because the sculpture isn’t going to last for more than a few hours and the detail will begin to fade right away. Sometimes you can even get away with using a chainsaw to apply detail because the rough edges will fade so quickly.
For other sculptures, such as cold-weather competition sculptures, sculptures for “special” special events, or sculptures for photography, you’re going to want to do some extreme ice sculpting. The detail should rise to the next level for an extra-special occasion. In these cases, you might use tools that aren’t typically used for ice sculpture. To achieve the detail that you’re looking for, you might have to be creative with your tool selections.
When I was looking for a way to apply delicate scales to the skin of the dragon above, I experimented with various Dremel bits and various tips on a soldering iron. The surface of the ice was buffed with various abrasives that included steel wool and small Dremel buffers. Some years ago, there was an article in an ice sculpting newsletter that talked about polishing the surface of ice sculptures for photographic purposes. The ideas in that article definitely influenced how I approached this sculpture.
World Champion carvers such as Steve Brice and Junichi Nakamura have mastered various surfacing and texturing techniques that change the way light travels through a sculpture. The design of a sculpture can be enhanced by applying different surfacing techniques to different parts of the sculpture. For example, intertwined elements might be surfaced differently so that the viewer can distinguish them more easily. These small details can have a vital role in the effectiveness of a sculpture.
why is this extreme ice sculpting?
With an ice sculpture like the dragon in this post, a lot of the fine detail would disappear within minutes of it setting it up at an event. For most ice sculptures, this level of detail would be totally unnecessary and a waste of time. Plus, with this particular dragon sculpture, it didn’t just take hours, it took more like days; days of experimenting, sculpting, and lighting. That’s why it’s extreme ice sculpting.
this isn’t the dragon (duh!), but this pelican was one of the most finely detailed ice sculptures that I’ve done in a while.
how can you do your own extreme ice sculpting?
I surprised myself with my dragon sculpture. It turned out better than I thought it ever would. But I spent a LOT of time on it. I spent a lot of time designing it, I spent a lot of time sculpting it, and I spent a lot of time evaluating what I was doing. And then, when it was all done, I spent a lot of time lighting it and photographing it.
So if you want to do something like this, you need to set aside some time and you need to have some freezer space to do it in. I remember sitting in a chair in front of this dragon for hours shaping the teeth, adding the scales, and fixing things that I decided I’d messed up.
Plan out what you’d like to do and break it down into manageable steps. Design and redesign until you understand what you want it to look like. It’s a lot easier to figure all that out OUTSIDE of the freezer than to have to make decisions when it’s 15˚F.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and don’t be afraid to fail. If there’s not a significant chance that things aren’t going to work, it’s not really extreme ice sculpting! And plus, it’s only ice 🥶😜
links & stuff
This post is listed on the ice sculpting techniques page, and you could also find photos and info from this entry on the ice sculpting secrets Instagram account or the facebook page. You can comment there as well as below. And if it won’t LET you comment below, then definitely comment on fb and/or IG. Thanks!
