I couldn’t tell you why we decided my turkey ice sculpture would look good with green lighting 🤷♂️
updated 11/24/23 with a video and a link. But mainly this was updated and expanded 6/23/23 when added to iss. This post combines two VERY similar turkey ice sculpture designs from 11/23/08 and 11/25/08
carving turkey ice sculptures
When you say, “carve a turkey,” most people (in the U.S., anyway) think of Thanksgiving dinner, just after grace and just before everyone starts to stuff themselves. Ice sculptors, on the other hand, think of all the turkey ice sculptures they have to make for Thanksgiving brunch. Like rabbits before Easter, ice turkeys can take up a lot of freezer space.
Unlike rabbits, however, turkeys don’t emerge easily from a block of ice. In fact, it was several years after I started carving ice that I even tried to figure out how to “carve a turkey.” The main problem, of course, is the tail fan. It just won’t fit in a block with the rest of the turkey. The obvious solution is to weld another piece of ice on, but until aluminum welding came along, that was a risky and difficult ordeal, given the size of the welded piece.
you’d probably want to add a piece of ice underneath the turkey above, if only to raise it up a bit. But it would also help with stability.
this pic of one of my turkey ice sculptures needed some work and I’m not sure if I’ve saved it or not. I might let AI take a shot at making the ice look like ice
the original, big turkey ice sculpture design
Now that we do have aluminum welding, it’s relatively easy to securely attach the large tail fan to the body of the turkey. In fact, if the weld is done properly, you can actually use the bottom of the tail as one of the lifting points for the sculpture. (Don’t do this unless you’re absolutely sure of the weld’s quality, however!)
The first turkey ice sculpture design has some similarities to the peacock design, and the turkey’s head is slightly oversized so that it will last. The way the design is currently presented, it requires about a block and a quarter of ice. A sizable chunk of ice is left over from the full block, however. This ice could easily be used as a base for the sculpture to stabilize it (the base shown in the design is quite small) or to raise it up a bit.
Alternatively, if the block is thinner than the normal 9.5-10 inches, wings could be cut from the extra ice and welded to the body on either side to widen the ice block. The piece of ice required for the tail is about 20”x20”x5”.
this drawing simply shows how the turkey’s tail fan is attached, with a flat weld
in the current design for this larger turkey ice sculpture, you need a bit more than one block of ice. I do have an idea on how to use the ice a bit more efficiently though; maybe in a later update…
sorry for the 9:16 video format; before this was a YouTube video, it was a TikTok. There’s not a whole turkey ice sculpture in the video. But the turkey’s tail made it in.
ooh, I remembered a story!
This has nothing to do with ice sculpting (sorry), but I have to include it…
Many years ago, in the middle of the night, I was driving from San Antonio back home to Albuquerque to see my family during a break from my college courses. I was pretty tired and probably should have already pulled over for a nap when I saw something flash low in front of my itty-bitty, beat-up Toyota Tercel with a million miles on it. Whatever it was, I hit it pretty hard, but it didn’t seem to affect my car much and I was too tired to get out and check as I was 99% sure I had killed it.
A short time later, I stopped for gas in Ozona, which is one of the few-and-far-between towns you’ll encounter on I-10 traveling through West Texas. I took a look at my front bumper, and much to my surprise, I found several flat-ended feathers stuck in my grill. I’d never seen a live wild turkey before, but the feathers were unmistakable. So what I’m saying is that ON THANKSGIVING, I killed the first living turkey I’d ever seen! (To be fair, I only barely saw him living.)
And I know what you’re thinking, so stop it! I wasn’t going to turn back to try to bring Texas roadkill to Thanksgiving dinner! 
a smaller, more efficient turkey ice sculpture
I’ve never carved my smaller turkey design (above), but as you’ll see, it’s a pretty logical conclusion based on the larger version of my turkey ice sculpture design and the turkey and pumpkins design. For both of the previous designs you need more than one block of ice while this version requires only a single block.
The basic procedure involves cutting a standard (40”x20”x10”) block in half, resulting in two 20”x20”x10” pieces. One of these pieces is split, yielding the tail and base components, while the other piece is used for the turkey’s body, wings, and head. The included graphics below illustrate the process. Familiarity with the aluminum welding technique is important in completing this sculpture.
since the tail fan portion is thinner, you can split that section of ice and get a base piece as well.
design variations?
Even though there are already 2 turkey ice sculpture design variations here, I also have another. It’s a hollow turkey and it’s a SHRIMP LUGE! I’m not going to get into the specifics right now, but I’ve added a pic below. I do think a turkey shrimp luge deserves it’s own post, so when I get to that, I’ll update.
this is kind of a different way to stuff a turkey, don’t you think?
stupid things I think of and decide to write about
Ok, so what would happen if you made a turkey ice sculpture while you were in Turkey? I suppose it would just be a Turkish turkey ice sculpture, but it could get confusing! Btw, this line of thinking started when I googled “turkey ice sculpture” and found a link about a very cool Turkish ice museum. No word on whether they have any turkey ice sculptures though 😜
ok, mostly I included this SLIGHTLY different picture of my green lit turkey ice sculpture because I couldn’t decide which I liked better. I know I don’t like the green, but I do like the ice!
to CNC or not to CNC
Ok, I was just about to say that I won’t be sculpting any turkey ice sculptures on my CNC, but then I realized that MAYBE I can make it work. If you’ve read anything about my CNC, you know it has a short gantry so I can’t sculpt thick ice blocks. But I do think I might be able to break down the turkey into manageable pieces, especially since the wings can be separate pieces that are very easy to weld on. The tail fan is definitely CNC-friendly too. I’ll have to see and I’ll update if I make some progress. Would LOVE to not be sculpting turkey ice sculptures by hand this coming Thanksgiving!
for more info and some guidelines
If you have any questions about my turkey ice sculpture design for Thanksgiving, 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. And don’t forget, I have other Turkey-day ice sculpture designs on the site.
You might also find photos and info from this entry on the ice sculpting secrets IG account and you can comment there as well as below. Thanks!
