This was at a private home party in New Orleans a LONG time ago, which partly explains the overflashed pic. (Lack of photography skills explains the rest š¬) I believe this is the first time I ever sculpted my Rudolph ice sculpture. I’ve sculpted it many times since then though.
my Rudolph ice sculpture design
*updated 5/23/23 when I finally added it to ice sculpting secrets!
I debated what to call this design. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a mouthful and I didnāt really want to call it āRudolphās head.ā (Because then it feels like Rudolph might be going around WITHOUT his head and that didnāt exactly give me a warm and fuzzy feeling š±) So previously, I settled on ābust,ā which doesnāt fit either, but is more or less accurate.
But for SEO purposes and also simplicity, here I now just call it my Rudolph ice sculpture. If I add more Rudolph designs later, I’ll solve whatever naming problems I create then. Right now, this is the only Rudolph ice sculpture on iss, so it’s settled.
I face my Rudolph ice sculpture design to the left, usually. When I make him into an ice luge on occasion, I’ll face him to the right to make the drink service easier.
making his nose red
Rudolph has a red nose, of course, and to give your Rudolph ice sculpture a red nose, you can carve it separately, at first anyway. I cut out a small cube of ice, split it carefully, and then flatten both surfaces. Then I put a small piece of red clear plastic between the two pieces and freeze them back together.
Once itās frozen, I attach the cube to Rudolphās face. (In the nose spot, of course!) After thatās frozen securely, I round out the cube and his nose is done!
From the side, the curvature of the ice makes it seem like the whole nose is red. You could also get a red piece of ice (freeze your own or buy a red block, which MIGHT be available from your ice house; probably not) or you could use some sort of prop in place of the ice. For smaller reindeer, Iāve drilled a small hole and used a red Tootsie pop, putting the stick into the drilled hole. Another possibility is to use some sort of cool temperature light, and then Rudolphās nose really does glow!
what Rudolph looks like to me
My Rudolph ice sculpture is DEFINITELY inspired by the classic stop-motion Rudolph movies. They used to be a vital part of our holidays! The main aspect I took from stop-motion Rudolph was his cartoon eyes (or “eye,” really, since I don’t really put defined eyes on both sides of this sort of ice sculpture).
Aside from his eye though, my Rudolph ice sculpture is fairly different, as least as much as an iconic reindeer can be. His snout is larger so that it will last longer and do a good job holding onto the red nose. And his antlers are reindeerish, simplified, and thicker. He also lacks some markings since that wouldn’t help the ice sculpture design much.
Btw, in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, hereās a compilation video of the stop-motion Rudolph Christmas specials, set to the famous song:
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where was Rudolph born?
The original Rudolph does look a bit like the stop-motion one. That’s because, as you may or may not know, Rudolph was born at a department store that was thinking $$$ during holiday sales. A cartoonish Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in a coloring book distributed by Montgomery Ward in 1939.
I’m only barely aware of Montgomery Ward; I think they were still around when I was little, but now they’re long gone. Rudolph lives on though, immortalized by the famous holiday song sung by Gene Autry. Apparently, it’s one of the best selling songs of all time. It’s definitely one of the best ear worms ever; tough to get it out of your head sometimes in December!
Rudolph as an ice sculpture (for me)
My Rudolph ice sculpture then, with these influences and my own tendency towards realism, looks like the combination of a cartoon and a real deer. I’d say reindeer instead of deer, but actual reindeer have a much less vertical attitude with their heads, and that doesn’t really work for this design. I believe I first sculpted my version of Rudolph in the early 2000s. (See the pic at the top of the post.)
Over the years, I’ve sculpted my Rudolph ice sculpture many times. And since the design was on ice carving secrets back in 2008, I’ve seen many other examples of my version, carved by other ice sculptors. It’s undoubtably one of my most successful designs. At a later date, I’d like to add some examples from other ice sculptors. If you’ve sculpted it and want to see your sculpture here, let me know!
in the template for my Rudolph ice sculpture, you can see that I get the nose from the ample extra ice at the top of the ice block.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed ice luge
Rudolph can work well as an ice luge. Basically, the way I handle that is to reverse the direction he faces, make a space for the funnel in his antlers and exit the tube from his mouth. I do find the tube though to be visually distracting. I’m not in love with this incarnation of Rudolph the Red-Nosed ice luge. If I can solve this somehow for this design, I will. I have done some other deer/reindeer ice luges before that I really liked!
As a side note, there is some irony in making Rudolph into an ice luge. Apparently, Rudolph was almost never born because of his red nose. There used to be a widespread association between red noses and drunkenness, so Rudolph as a cartoon Christmas hero almost never got off the ground š± Perhaps they somehow KNEW that holiday partiers would someday take drinks straight from the reindeer’s mouth?! š¤·āāļø
how would it work on a CNC machine?
Rudolph isn’t ideal for most CNCs, but it’s doable. I’m not going to rush to create this design in my software though, because my machine isn’t a good fit right now. My machine is much better on ice slabs that are 6″ thick or less. Full blocks are problematic, so I’d have to work around this. Far quicker to sculpt it by hand.
for more info and some guidelines
If you have any questions about my Rudolph ice sculpture 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.
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