April 2, 2007

ice sculpting steps

rare sighting of a sea horse in New Mexico. Almost every ice sculpture goes through a series of ice sculpting steps.

updated 7/20/23 with seo, formatting, and added links and pics

laying out the ice sculpting steps

Here I’ve broken down the ice sculpting process into five separate ice sculpting steps. These steps aren’t always discrete; they can easily overlap one another depending on the sculpture, the sculptor, and many other circumstances. Going into much detail on each step would take far more time and space than I have right now, so I’ll go back to each step in the future. Briefly, the five ice sculpting steps are design, execution, preservation & transportation, display, & breakdown.

ice sculpture design: the most important ice sculpting step?

Along with execution, design is one of the most important ice sculpting steps. A bad design will doom your sculpture visually and might even make it unsafe. A well designed sculpture is safe, likely incorporates a strong silhouette, and lasts long enough to be effective at its event.

When you design your sculpture, you make all sorts of choices so you don’t have to make them either while your ice is melting or while you’re standing in a freezer. This almost always involves at least sketching out your design on a piece of paper and might also involve transferring your design to a full-size template that you can stick to the surface of the ice block. Having a small-scale model of your sculpture for reference can also be very helpful.

Design can also affect all of the following steps by making them easier or more difficult. There is always a hard way to “execute” a sculpture and a poorly designed sculpture can create much more work for you than it needs to. Transporting and preserving an awkward or unnecessarily delicate carving can be a genuine ordeal, while displaying a badly designed piece can create all sorts of troubles. Finally, the sculpture’s design can even affect breakdown, possibly making is more difficult than it should be.

execution: creating your ice sculpture

During execution, the sculpture moves from concept to reality. So, this step begins with choosing your ice. What kind of ice will work for this sculpture (Clinebell or can, for example)? How many blocks of ice do you need? Much like a stone sculptor will choose an appropriate block of marble for his work, you must choose your ice. Now sometimes, you don’t get to choose. In this case, design can overlap with execution, and your design may have to be adapted to the ice available.

After the ice is in place, the execution of the design can begin. The ice is cut and shaped in whatever way you choose, whether it be chainsaw, chisel, die grinder or even blow torch. You might take any one of many paths to execute your design in ice. In addition, the design step may not yet be over and you may change or add to your original design for all sorts of reasons.

The execution step often ends when you set your tools down. However, this step may not end until the sculpture is displayed if assembly of the sculpture is required. So execution might overlap with the display step, although it wouldn’t be a part of the transportation and preservation step.

preserving and transporting your ice sculpture

Usually, this step starts as soon as you put your tools down. Unless you’re doing something like a demonstration piece, the sculpture will probably need to be moved and preserved. This step might be very short, such as moving a newly finished sculpture to the next room for an event.

However, this step might be very long. Consider, for example, the situation that Iceculture, located in Hensall, Ontario, is in. For them, this step can be very complex. Their sculptures often end up in a different country and might be stored in a freezer for weeks or months. Transportation to the event site might take days or even weeks and likely involves a stop at Customs.

From my point of view, this step has become more complex since we moved from New Orleans. In fact, for a little while, I would carve sculptures, pack them up, then drive six hours from Tennessee to New Orleans to deliver them to events. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case; things are much more manageable now.

This step ends when the sculpture is uncovered and up on display.

preservation and transport overlaps with display as Joe Rimer rides a boom lift above the wrapped bottle neck of a massive bottle ice luge in Boston.

displaying your sculpture

This step usually begins before the carving ever comes out of the freezer. Sculpture stability and safety is the first concern; everything else is secondary. Safety includes controlling the water from the sculpture and safe handling procedures if food is going around the sculpture.

After the safety issues are worked out, the overall effect of the sculpture needs to be considered. If the sculpture isn’t in a good spot, facing the right direction, and properly lighted, then your client is wasting their money.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been directed to set up a sculpture in front of a white wall with a fire alarm smack in the middle of it. I usually try to convince them to pick another spot. Keep in mind that a properly displayed sculpture can easily turn into THE spot to take pictures at an event.

Floral, food, or fabrics can often give sculptures an added splash of color and can enhance the presentation. The display tray should be clean and with as few scratches as possible. A sculpture’s environment is important too. If you put up a sculpture in front of a heater vent or a bunch of hot lights, you can shorten its effective life dramatically.

Finally, timing is important. Set up a sculpture so that it’s fully tempered, but hasn’t lost much detail when most of the guests will see it for the first time.

in the case of this record-breaking ice luge, the breakdown is arguably just as important as the other ice sculpting steps, since there was a glass covered escalator just behind the massive bottle. Plus it was tall enough to potentially be deadly.

ice sculpture breakdown

This is probably the most neglected of the ice sculpting steps, since it feels like you’re done when the sculpture is up and the event has started. Many times the sculptor can skip this step if someone else takes responsibility for taking down the ice and getting rid of the meltwater. For large pieces, however, this step can be a big deal. And it often takes place in the wee hours of the morning, when you’re tired, so it can be dangerous as well.

If you hand over the breakdown responsibilities to someone else, providing them with an ice pick can enable them to take the sculpture down in small bites rather than all at once. However, they should use gloves with the ice pick, because freshly broken ice can easily cut bare hands.

Sometimes, breakdown needs to occur during the event. This could be planned or necessary if the sculpture becomes unsafe. If it’s the latter, bite the bullet and go ahead. It’s better to be overly cautious than to have a sculpture hurt someone.

Preparation for breakdown should begin before the event is over. Know what you’re going to do with the ice; you can’t just leave it anywhere. It has to be moved to a safe place where it can melt undisturbed. Resist the temptation to dispose of the ice in dangerous ways, like dropping it off a balcony. Lawyers love that sort of thing!

Finally, remember that you also have to get rid of the water. Five to ten gallons of water can make a huge mess if you’re not careful. I remember a time when a full container fell off my handtruck and flooded a hallway. It took me a long time in the middle of the night to take care of that mess.

I'll have more to say about the ice sculpting steps

As I said before, I’ll come back to each of these steps in more detail in the future. For now, look at these steps as a checklist to be sure that you have your bases covered. A little thinking in advance can safe a lot of running around later.

links and more info

This post is important in that the ice sculpting techniques page is broken down according to these ice sculpting steps. Also, you might also find photos and info from this entry on the ice sculpting secrets Instagram account or the facebook page and you can comment there if commenting here doesn’t work.