Ed Tillotson's elegant ice artistry
Ed Tillotson has long been one of the most innovative ice sculptors in the U.S. His ice sculpture business, Elegance in Ice, is based in the Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Palm Beach area.
Ed’s gallery was a part of my massive photo dump project, so I’m still working on his gallery and this page a bit. But I’m making progress, finally!
Years ago, Ed Tillotson and I teamed up to sculpt ice for an Olympic qualifier competition in Orlando. Ed was in charge of the design and he had a fantastic Michael Jordan sculpture all worked out. In the sculpture, Jordan stood on top of a 20″ diameter globe that we created from a full block of ice. We managed a partial practice session before the competition and we were confident that we had a strong contender.
As we were getting close to the end of the competition, the sculpture looked great! However, for some dumbass reason, I felt the need to work on Jordan’s feet with a somewhat dull chisel. This was probably the most breakable part of the sculpture since it was where Jordan’s feet were welded to the globe. Sculpting there with a dull chisel, when the sculpture was at its most vulnerable, was a crucial mistake.
Since I was working on his feet, the nearly life-size Michael Jordan sculpture was towering over me. Fortunately, Ed was cleaning up some details at the top of the sculpture. As I foolishly chiseled away and the sculpture began to collapse, Ed was able to push Michael away from me, in a direction where he DIDN’T land on my head π±
Anyway, Ed likely saved me from significant injury and maybe a lot worse! But that’s not why I added his pics to the ice sculpting secrets site π He’s just a really good ice sculptor!
Oh, all of these pics are Ed Tillotson’s property and are used with permission! Thanks Ed!
I’ll probably have even more info here soonish! Sorta even promise!