Carving Ice had me come out to their 2011 Ice Museum at the Orange County Fair and make this reef shark ice sculpture from clear and color ice blocks. (This photo was initially kind of blurry, but just recently, I was able to unblur it with an AI program. But that’s all I did to it.)
my reef shark ice sculpture design
updated with significant additions 6/15/23 when added to iss
This reef shark design, along with the earlier manta ray and sea turtle designs, was part of the 2011 Orange County Fair Ice Museum in Costa Mesa, CA (put together by Carving Ice, now The Art of Carving Ice). But the reef shark was 8 feet long in the museum and required 2 Clinebell blocks and a monster double can block (see a pic of one of these blocks below). And that doesn’t count all the ice that made up the reef below either!
The design has been converted to a single block piece, with two versions. It’s a paltry 40 inches long instead of 8 feet. But you don’t need heavy equipment to move it around, and it only requires 2-3 aluminum welds, depending on the version you choose. The first is as complicated as you want to make it. Go crazy with the reef; add all sorts of reef details and textures. Freeze on starfish, shells, clams, and corals. This design has three aluminum welds for the dorsal and pectoral fins. It’s also significantly heavier and makes much better use of the available ice.
The second design is much simpler, with stylized water holding up the shark. Only two welds are required for the pectoral fins, but they’re not the easiest welds. This piece is also pretty light, as a lot of ice is cut away from the block.
The reef shark display in the museum was a nice mix of clear and colored ice. The reef colors varied wildly, brown on one end and purple/pink on the other. After the main sculpture was completed, Carving Ice added a lot of small details all over the reef to make the display even more complicated and colorful.
another look at my shark ice sculpture, made from clear ice atop a multi-colored ice reef in Costa Mesa, CA. Photo courtesy of Jim Ottens
this is a 600 lb., double can ice block that Carving Ice calls a “monster block.”
different design approaches
I’m offering 2 shark ice sculpture versions here: reef shark and shark in the water. When I sculpted my giant reef shark in California, I naturally started with the shark and left the reef details for the end. Well, I could have spent days working on the reef details alone! As it turned out, I did a few reef details and then the guys at Carving Ice added some more after I had to fly out, which made for a much better presentation! But had I sculpted a shark in open water, not going to lie, that would have been much easier!
here’s the big shark and reef partly completed. The “monster block” makes up most of the front half of the shark.
you have 2 options for my reef shark ice sculpture: “by the reef” or “open water,” also known as “super time consuming” and “much quicker.”
this video shows pretty much the whole 2011 Ice Museum and even has a bit of Mark Daukas working on his Neptune display. My manta ray shows up in the very beginning and my sea turtle is right near Mark. Along the way, you see some of Mark’s other sculptures and a jellyfish and fan coral by Roland Hernandez of Carving Ice.
if you don’t want to make the urchin, clamshell, starfish, anemones, and all the other coral, then just make some waves!
I didn’t make this sharkjaw, but I did the CNC design work for it. It was at an ice bar in Orlando and I think it may have had quite the dramatic ending!
ok, this has nothing to do with the other shark and sharkjaw, but it was a fun shark ice sculpture for a Florida club
how would it work on a CNC machine?
I’m not sure that either of these shark ice sculpture designs are worth programming into my CNC. I’d consider it if I had a larger machine, but also, I haven’t had to sculpt a lot of sharks in my career. The shark jaw (seen earlier in this post), on the other hand, makes for a pretty awesome photo op piece, whether it’s inside or outside a cold ice bar, and I would definitely make that on my CNC. Btw, there’s a rumor that my shark jaw design (sculpted by Ice Pro though) had quite the amazing ending when someone decided that it would be fun to try to dive through it 😱
for more info and some guidelines
If you have any questions about my reef shark 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.
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!
