the first (and probably only) Ice Pro Design of the Week: an ice luge design with space for two logos
updated 9/3/23
a dual logo ice luge design
Well, WAY back in years gone by, Joe Rimer of Ice Pro Ice Sculptures committed to providing an ice sculpture design for ice carving secrets once per week, either one of his designs or one that Lianne Rimer put together. This feature was to be called the “Ice Pro Design of the Week.”
Fortunately, this didn’t last long, as I would have had trouble posting a new design from someone else every week and then trying to make progress on stuff I wanted to post myself! So, as far as I know, this was the only Ice Pro Design of the Week. If I find any more buried in my emails, I’ll add those to this new ice sculpting secrets site too. Well, unless they suck 🤣😜 (I’ve already added a few of my own designs that suck, so that actually wouldn’t be a disqualification 😬)
The first (and probably only) Ice Pro Design of the Week was a dual logo ice luge. Now I’d think it rather unlikely that you’ll find a need for this exact Byblos Cafe/Russian Standard ice luge in your particular locale, so you should plan on customizing this design for your own purposes. To that end, a blank version of the design is provided.
Also, at Ice Pro, they use CNC machines and a bandsaw for many of their ice designs. If you don’t have access to these fairly pricey and sophisticated ice sculpting tools, then you will probably find that it simplifies things to take slightly different approaches and use different techniques for a hand carved version of this design. I’ll make suggestions where appropriate.
this is a very basic template for the dual logo ice luge. You’ll probably want to use different logos and maybe different shapes for the logos too.
The dual logo ice luge in the photo is made up of six pieces of ice. But we’re going to ignore one of the pieces (and probably two) in the design breakdown and the assembly diagram (below). So forget about the bottle holder in the photo. (And the base platform can be a lot smaller if you get rid of the bottle holder.)
Also, in the original, the luge tubing is encased within two slabs of ice with the same outline. The front slab has a groove cut into it that holds the luge tubing; once the tubing is in place, the two slabs are frozen together, trapping the tubing inside the ice with just the ends sticking out. If you have a large bandsaw, this is a pretty easy trick because it cuts slabs of ice that are almost perfectly flat. If you don’t have a bandsaw, you can spend a lot of time flattening the weld surfaces, especially if your surfaces are significantly less than perfect.
So, you might find it easier to just use one slightly thicker slab of ice instead of two. And instead of sandwiching the luge tube between two slabs, you can cut most of the track into the back of the single slab (all but the entry and exit points, which are cut inline with the tubing track; I have another post on the site that details this procedure). Once the tubing is in the track, slush from the back sis used to freeze it into place.
here’s a simple assembly diagram for the dual logo ice luge. The luge track has already been cut into the back of the main piece of ice.
Since you’ll probably have to wait a REALLY long time for someone to call and order a Byblos/Russian Standard dual logo ice luge, you’ll need to have a Plan B for this design. Plan B means putting different logos/graphics in the logo sections. It might also mean changing the shapes of the the logo sections somewhat. (Ovals might be nice 🤔) But that will depend on the logos or graphics that you’re using. As for how you get the logos on your sculpture, you have a variety of options.
At Ice Pro, because they use a CNC machine for most of their logo work, they opted to colorfill the ice pieces from the back side with sand. If you’re carving by hand, you may decide this option is too time-consuming. Other options would be to snowfill engrave the designs from the front of the ice slabs or to print color logos on paper or transparencies and freeze them in behind the slabs. All of these techniques, properly executed, can result in a high quality, professional looking presentation.
your dual logo ice luge should end up something like this, probably with your client’s logos or messages, not the Byblos and Russian Standard ones 🤦♂️
So, in essence, we’re left with four pieces of ice to be frozen together: a stabilizing base, the main structural/luge slab, and the two smaller logo pieces. The main slab that incorporates the luge is frozen to the base (while it’s upright). Once the base is frozen on, the smaller logo pieces are added to the main slab while the base/main slab assembly is lying down.
By the way, in case you’re wondering, the two logo sections are rotated 20˚.
Finally, Ice Pro retains copyrights to this design and their photos, artwork, and ice sculpture designs are used with permission.
links and other stuff
If you have any questions about the dual logo ice luge, email me or comment below. 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. Actually, you probably should comment there or on IG, since my comments on old posts are giving me trouble. Thanks!
