this sculpture played the role of Humpty Dumpty. Fortunately, all the kingās horses and all the kingās men pulled it off this time.
You DID read the first part of what it’s like to be an ice sculptor, right? If not, start at the beginning.
updated 10/30/23 with a couple of videos on the world’s tallest ice luge project. And then also 7/8/23 with mostly formatting, fixing links, and seo tweaks
the screw ups: š© happens
sculpture mistakes
Lots of ice sculptures incorporate names. I dread the idea of spelling someone’s name wrong on an ice sculpture. Fortunately, although there was a close call or two, I’ve never done it. I have spelled the word “anniversary” wrong before, however. It was pointed out to me at the event. I forgot the first ār.ā I’ve never spelled that word wrong since.
On the flip side, there was that other time that I was just about the only person that got the initials right for one group. Even the Convention and Visitorsā Bureau messed up, and their big mistake was on a giant lighted sign that overlooked the interstate. But no one remembers when you get it right.
wrong day
Over the years, it’s inevitable that there would be some sort of screw up on scheduling. It’s happened a few times where an ice sculpture was improperly scheduled or scheduled for the wrong day, or whatever. It’s the worst kind of phone call when the client calls and asks if you’re almost there and youāre not even moving in that direction because you didnāt know you were supposed to. (Okay, maybe not the worst kind of phone call. But it’s pretty bad.)
I’ll never forget one October when I was in a pumpkin patch looking for pumpkins to sculpt and I got a call like that from a client. I couldn’t say sorry enough and I still feel bad about it. She was very understanding; surprisingly understanding actually, in my opinion.
broken ice
Ice breaks a lot. I used to freak out about it. Usually, itās just little breaks, but now, even if it’s a major break, I still seem to keep my cool. I guess Iāve realized that going ballistic doesnāt help; the ice is still broken.
There was one Father’s Day, when I was delivering an ice sculpture to a country club. I was using a cart to move the sculpture across the parking lot to take it into the club. I hit a bad spot in the pavement or something and the sculpture fell off the cart, onto the hot New Orleans pavement. It was a sailfish and what was once one piece was suddenly seven. That was one of the worst ice sculpture breaks I’ve ever seen. But I decided to try to fix it, and I pulled it off, mostly. (See the picture up top.)
late sculptures
I wish I could say I’ve never been late to an ice sculpture delivery. But it happens, and sometimes there’s not much that you could do about it. There was one time when I was delivering an ice sculpture to Jackson, Mississippi. An 18 wheeler had overturned on the road on the way to the event and there was no way around it that I knew of. I think I lost more than an hour wading through the ridiculous traffic.
When I finally arrived at the event, the client was very understanding because they knew what had happened. It was for a Mississippi trade group; there was even somebody connected with the police at the event that suggested that I should’ve called somebody and the police would’ve gotten me there quicker. This was a very weird idea to me, but he seemed to think that it really would’ve worked. It took hours to get that 18 wheeler off the road; it was still there on my way back. (I think the driver was okay, fortunately.)
It’s very possible to knock an ice sculpture delivery completely off track with a major delay. The delivery window for an ice sculpture is relatively small. You can’t get there too early. And obviously you can’t get there too late. So if you get a major delay that’s well outside your control, you just have to hope you have an understanding client. If itās your fault, then you have to find a way to keep the client and thatās a whole other conversation.
to be an ice sculptor sometimes means stressing out over a pretty ice cube
Even though ice sculptures are how I put food on the table and pay my bills, I still know that in the end, they’re really just giant pretty ice cubes. Sometimes, I’m amazed at how much clients have invested in my ice art. They seem to be depending on them to make their entire event. Of course, I’m flattered by this, but it can be a problem if something doesn’t go quite right.
Once, I didn’t provide sketch in advance of a large Mardi Gras mask sculpture. As it turned out, the client had a very different sculpture design in mind. I never found out exactly what that idea was, but my sculpture clearly was not what she was thinking. Even though it was a good ice sculpture, and in many ways the right ice sculpture, it wasn’t what she wanted, so it made no difference. That was a learning experience.
sculpting fun and interesting sculptures
I really like the fun sculptures. Sometimes I’ll even discount a sculpture if I really want to do it and I’m concerned that my typical price won’t fit in the budget. You’d probably have a tough time nowadays convincing me to discount an ice sculpture because “It’ll be worth a lot of exposure,ā but you’d have a pretty good chance if you came up with a sculpture that I really wanted to try. One fun sculpture that I got to try some time back was a deer head JƤgermeister ice luge. I was pretty sure that it would work fine. (It did.)
this design was inspired by one by Okamoto Studio in New York. My sculpture was different, but I appreciate the inspiration they provided.
wondering if something is going to work; not being sure
There have definitely been times when I wasn’t completely sure that an ice sculpture idea was going to work. And a few of those times, it didn’t work, but we made some sorts of adjustments on site and in the end it was usually okay. But that uncertainty is definitely a nervous feeling. I worked on a project over the summer where I was not in charge, but I spent a lot of time talking to my friend Joe, who was in charge. There were a lot of things that could go wrong with this project and I knew that it was making Joe nervous. But true to form, he made everything work and the end result was fantastic!
the team that carried out Joeās project in Boston.
pouring drinks down the world record ice luge.
I’m in here somewhere. I’m wearing a red hat š It’s hard to see me though, cuz I’m moving REALLY fast! Notice we built it in front of a big glass enclosure over an escalator, since that’s the BEST place to put a massive ice luge š³ See this on YouTube if it doesn’t work here.
The party looked like a blast, but we were kinda exhausted, so we didn’t really join in all the festivities. Sometimes, to be an ice sculptor, you miss out a bit on some fun events. Plus, somebody had to take this monstrosity down after the party and that took a LONG time!
competitions and live shows
I thrive on the energy that you get in ice sculpting competitions. There’s a certain adrenaline rush and an urgency that’s tough to replicate. I usually find that I’m a much faster ice sculptor in competition than I would ever be in everyday life. Another neat part about ice sculpting competitions is that they’ve allowed me to visit places that I never would’ve seen otherwise.
this is the snow flying off a sculpture during a live demo. The kids like the snow a lot; probably even more than the sculptures.
Live shows can be nerve-racking while demos are generally just fun. I think I prefer demos nowadays, if I had to choose. The best demos are the ones for kids. They are genuinely interested in what you’re doing and they ask the best questions and say the best things. They also love it when you get snow all over them.
I usually try to have some fun with them and ask them to guess what I’m carving. To make it more difficult, I might carve the sculpture upside down or in an odd position and then turn it right side up towards the end. One little girl at a Christmas demo guessed that I was carving Santa Claus upside down almost right away. I was shocked and impressed.
the weird aspects
I’m pretty sure that I could bluff my way into almost any special event if I tell whoever’s at the door that I’m there to check on the ice sculpture. I’m not sure if it matters if there’s an ice sculpture at the event or not. I’ve never tried this bluff, but given the ease with which I’m able to take sharp scary tools into all sorts of events makes me think that I could pull this off.
Iām not really sure why this happens, but the only security situations that I’ve run into so far where this would be a definite no go are Super Bowls and the Secret Service. I’ve been in the vicinity of presidents three times and they are ridiculously thorough. Glad to see that.
the ice sculpture for a visit by President Clinton to New Orleans. Security had automatic rifles and a no nonsense attitude.
On the other hand, whenever I’m traveling to an event by air, I’m pretty much guaranteed to find a little note from TSA in my bags when I arrive. This is understandable; if I x-rayed a bag that had an ice sculptor’s arsenal of tools in it, I’d open it up to check it out too.
I get lots of these nice notes from the government. Plus, they were nice enough to wad up and return the pink duct tape that was wrapped around my other bag, a toolbox.
the questions
Ice sculptors answer the same questions over and over again. The most basic is, āIs that ice?” Um, yes.
Another frequent question is, “How long will the sculpture last?” I like to have fun with this one. Usually, I get the question about half an hour before the start of the event. I usually tell them āat least 20 or 30 minutes.ā Then I get an āUh-oh!ā look and then they usually realize that I’m playing around. Hopefully they laugh.
When I’m bringing a sculpture in, often in an elevator, and theĀ sculpture is wrapped in a sleeping bagĀ and on a cart, Iāll often be asked if it’s a dead body. Since it’s kind of a shocking question, I might go with a shocking answer, something like: āNo, it’s just a bunch of frozen kittens.ā (I love both cats and dogs, so this would NEVER happen.) Ask a silly questionā¦
the worst part
To me, the worst part of sculpting ice is when you’re in the freezer at 4 AM and youāve been sculpting all night and you know you have an event coming up later in the day. This of course happens when you were a little optimistic as to how much you could get done in a given amount of time, or maybe a crucial tool broke, or you get last-minute orders that are difficult to turn down for important clients.
It can also be a lonely job. The list of people that want to hang out with you while you’re working in the freezer is very short. But artistic pursuits are often solitary, so that kind of comes with the territory. And on the other hand, you meet a lot of new people all the time at the special events that you’re creating sculptures for.
the best part
The best part of ice sculpting, and I think probably the best part for a lot of artists, is when you see people that are enjoying your artwork and that they notice it and are affected by it. Some will reach out to touch it, maybe making sure itās ice. One of the things that I watch, when Iām at an event, is to see how many people are taking photos of the ice sculpture. This kind of tells me how much of an impression it’s made on the guests and it’s very rewarding to have a lot of people admiring your work.
On the other hand, I have been there when someone was less than complimentary about one of my sculptures. It was a little off-putting, but I’d say I did okay as to how well I reacted. The person talking didn’t know that I was at the sculptor until the end of the conversation. Iām at a point in my career where I found his opinion to be more amusing than bothersome. I think it would have been much more difficult to take early in my career.
don't ever ask an ice sculptor this question
Finally, Iāll end with a pet peeve. Want to annoy me or any other ice sculptor? Then look at my ice sculpture and ask āWhat is it?ā What this really means is that you canāt be bothered to spend a moment looking at what I just made and answer your own question. Either that, or it means I really screwed up. Neither of these things are good.
in closing
I hope to gather many more ice-related stories and anecdotes to share in the years to come and I will always be grateful that Iāve been able to do something that I genuinely enjoy as my occupation. I also hope you found this to be interesting and maybe even a little entertaining! For more in a similar vein, check out myĀ Q&A on jobstr.com. (The link goes to an entry that talks about the Q&A, but the thread link is there also.) Feel free to post questions there or in the comment section below.
p.s.
You might have recently seen anĀ article with a similar titleĀ thatās hosted on Oprahās site and featuresĀ Heather Brice. I couldnāt tell you if I came up with the title for this article independently or if I just choose to remember that way, but if you read both, I think youāll agree that theyāre quite different. I think another difference would be that a few hundred might eventually read this article, while a few million will probably read Heatherās. I guess thatās what winning a few world championships will do for you!
