this is probably my oldest version of Frosty the ice luge. I hadn’t found out where to get clear plastic luge funnels at that point, so it looks like I got a white plastic one from somewhere 🤷♂️
updated 10/31/23 with the sing along video and then 4/16/23 with who knows what when restored to ice sculpting secrets
my Frosty the ice luge design
When I was a child, Frosty the Snowman was one of my favorite Christmas-time songs and I’d look forward to the holiday Frosty cartoons almost as much as the stop-motion Rudolph movies. Then much later, the first time I carved a snowman out of ice, I thought it would be a piece of cake. How hard could it be?
Well, it wasn’t too bad, but it was significantly more difficult than I’d anticipated. Properly rounding out the snowballs and getting the hat right are a couple of aspects that took a little time. Later, I added color details to my snowmen, so that their buttons and smiling faces would stand out. All that’s being done in that case is to freeze a small piece of construction paper or colored plastic behind a slightly larger piece of ice. Then you round out the covering ice a bit and the plastic or paper behind it will look larger because of a lensing effect.
here’s an earworm for you, should you decide to unmute it. Sung by Gene Autry.
the carrot nose dilemma
The carrot nose, on the other hand is a completely different beast. An opportunity to carve Olaf from “Frozen” gave me a chance to solve this problem. Now the perspective in the photo below makes it tough to see, but Olaf’s bright orange nose was about 6 or 7 inches long, at least, and 3 inches wide at the base. And there was no problem whatsoever with it falling off at any point during the event.
And it wasn’t a carrot.
Carrots and other added items have a tendency to fall out of ice snowmen at inopportune moments because the hole that is holding them in place changes a bit as the sculpture melts.) Can you guess what I did?
did you guess correctly?
Did you guess that I cut up a spongy, Nerf-like toy ball and froze it into a piece of ice? If you did, you’d be right. Anyone who has played basketball inside with a miniature net has probably been playing with one of these balls. I went by and picked a couple up at ToysRUs. I was able to use scissors to easily cut the nose and then I simply froze it into solid ice in a pitcher of water.
Once it was frozen, I could sculpt the ice around it and freeze it directly to the sculpture. You could certainly use a carrot frozen into ice too, but Olaf’s nose is unusually wide and I didn’t think much of my chances of finding a 3 inch thick carrot. The nice part about the sponge ball too is that it quickly absorbs water and freezes up really well. It’s also a very bright orange, the effect of which I like a lot.
Frosty is perfect for props!
Ok, so back to Frosty. When luges became popular, Frosty the ice luge seemed like a natural choice, especially with his thick arms, so I came up with this version. By the way, if you like to use props with your ice sculptures, Frosty is perfect for them. Instead of carving a scarf or hat, you can easily use a real one. Just make sure to properly size your ice in the case of the hat. Also, depending on the fabric or material, you might be able to get your prop wet and freeze it to your sculpture 🥶
uh, what about the arms?
My Frosty the ice luge design is still a bit incomplete, because the template view is kind of an approximation. Right now, there’s not much guidance for freezing on the arms. Since they’re kind of lumpy snowman arms though, I think you can manage. However, I’ll still try fix that later. But you should use the aluminum welding technique to make the weld lines as invisible as possible (and the welds as strong as possible). The luge line should be added from the back after the figure is completely carved.
for more info and some guidelines
If you have any questions about my Frosty the ice luge design, email me or comment below. (It might not let you though.) 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 facebook page and you can comment there as well as below. Thanks!
