I redid my old art deco star ice sculpture design, largely so I could easily add updated years to the New Year’s Eve versions of the templates. (see below)
updated and expanded when added to iss 6/20/23
my original art deco star ice sculpture design
what I originally wrote about this design (not much):
This is a simple design that works well for New Year’s Eve events, as well as many other kinds of events (Hollywood-themed, for example). A simple message is snowfilled into the face of a star with an art deco style base. The sculpture is cut from a half block slab (40”x20”x4-5”) frozen to a stabilizing base.
I had several jpegs like this one of my old art deco star ice sculpture design, but no vector artwork to make updating easy.
the star
When I started to update this design for the new site, I realized (as I have with other date-related designs) that I would need new artwork to make this post useful. But I couldn’t find the original Adobe Illustrator file for the design. Fortunately, it’s a very easy design to put together, so not a big deal. In addition, I wanted to make sure the star was “perfect” anyway, and it looked slightly off in the jpegs that I had from 2012 or whenever.
When I say “perfect,” I mean the five-pointed star that we see on the U.S. flag or on Captain America’s shield. The easiest way to explain what I mean is to say that the top lines on the left and right “arms” of the star (versus the head and the legs) are perfectly horizontal and all the angles in the star are equal to corresponding angles in other parts of the star. Thus, there’s no distortion in the star; it looks the same whenever you rotate it 72˚ (1/5th of the way around) or any multiple thereof.
Using Adobe Illustrator again, however, I couldn’t immediately find a way to make a “perfect” star and I managed to convince myself that Illustrator didn’t have a good way to do that. So I built my star from a regular pentagon, which basically guarantees a perfect star if you do it right. Later, of course, I realized that I missed an Illustrator trick that easily creates a perfect five-pointed star. So I wasted a bunch of time 🙄 but I learned something too.
what makes it art deco?
While I’m talking about rebuilding this design, how come I call this my art deco star ice sculpture design? What makes it art deco and what is art deco anyway?
Well, art deco is an artistic style featuring bold lines and geometry that really got going (in the U.S. anyway) in the 1920’s. It apparently got its start in France before WWI. Art deco isn’t just about art. It’s about architecture, automobile design, furniture, jewelry, and lots more.
My educational background isn’t in art, it’s in science. I ended up as an artist mostly via ice sculpting. So I’m not the best person to explain exactly what art deco looks like. For me, mostly I know art deco when I see it. However, here’s a useful page that talks about what the heck art deco is and does a far better job than I could unless I go off back to school.
That said, a LOT of ice sculptors knowingly or unknowingly integrate art deco style into their ice sculpture designs. That’s because the bold geometric lines and flowing aerodynamic shapes of art deco work great with ice sculptures.
For my art deco star ice sculpture design, it’s mostly the base that’s really art deco. Art deco is a lot of things, but you will frequently see diverging lines used in the style. One explanation that I ran into described it as a graphical representation of stage lighting.
At a later date, hopefully I can talk more about art deco and ice sculpting. I probably need to learn a little more before I try that anyway though. I don’t want to come off as a total doofus to someone who actually is an authority on art deco.
I’ve included a couple extra years worth of the New Year’s version of my art deco star ice sculpture design. That’s in case a piano falls on my head and I’m in a coma until August 2026. Unlikely, but possible!
here’s a blank art deco star ice sculpture design template. Make something cool 🥶
design variations: a few years ahead
The main design variations that I have for you with this design are versions for the next few New Year’s Eves. (Or New Year’s Days) I’ve also added a blank version to do whatever you want with.
to CNC or not to CNC
I haven’t run this on my CNC yet. I expect I will at some point though because I like this design. I’ll have to do a little work on the design though, since when I rebuilt it for this post, I didn’t really design according to what works best for the CNC. I usually do as of late, but I was lazy.
The font that I used is Apple Chancery, which is a popular Mac font. It works pretty well for snowfill engraving, except when it’s a little small (as it is here). When that happens, I have to outline the lettering a bit so that there aren’t any parts that are too narrow for the 1/8″ CNC bit to engrave.
Finally, the CNC should do a great job with this design, mostly. It’ll have a slight problem with the cutouts beneath the star. That’s because, since CNCs use round spinning bits, they suck at cutouts because the corners don’t end up sharp. They can’t. Most people won’t ever notice though.
for more info and some guidelines
If you have any questions about my art deco star ice sculpture design, email me or comment below. (It might not let you though if it’s been a while.) If you would like to use this ice sculpture design or any other design on this site, please check the design usage guidelines. The design collection page lists designs on the site.
You might also find photos and info from this entry on the ice sculpting secrets Instagram account and you can comment there as well as below. Thanks!
