If you look at photos of the sculptures from the World Ice Art Championships, you’ll notice a myriad of differently textured and detailed surfaces on the various sculptures. The level of competition is so high that competitors are constantly trying to come up with ways to make their sculptures stand out. If you watch the “tools” section of the “World on Ice” DVD about the Ice Art Championships, one of the mentioned die grinder bits is a “bubble bit.” The bit makes little domes or “bubbles” on the surface of your ice. When I looked around for a bubble bit, I eventually found them on Steve and Heather Brice’s site. Once I got one (the medium sized bit), I looked around for an opportunity to experiment with it. Not much experimentation was needed; the bit was very easy to use and I regretted not trying it immediately. Sometimes you have to remove unwanted ice between the produced bubbles with an ice pick or small chisel, but in my limited experience with the medium size bit, this isn’t much of a problem. I first used the bit on the sculpture below, a stiletto heeled shoe. If you look closely, you can see a bottle of vodka in the shoe. The party was a launch event for Stiletto Vodka and the sculptures were a big hit, largely, I believe, because of the detail that I was able to add with the bubble bit.

    Heather Brice had previously sent me a photo of an egg that Steve Brice had used a larger bubble bit on and I’ve included it below.

“Bubble egg”

(image courtesy of Brice & Brice sculptures and www.stevebrice.net)

    Initially, I tried the medium sized bit. Due to its success, I have the larger bit on order. Later, I will order the small version. I intend to use the larger bit, in combination with the medium bit, to add grapes to sculptures for a wine themed event that’s coming up. Later next year, I should be able to use the small bit to add “Mardi Gras beads” to various sculptures.

    Currently, I have to take a roundabout approach to attaching the bits to my Makita die grinder. The Makita accepts 1/4” shaft bits, but the bubble bits have 3/8” shafts, because, as you might have guessed, they’re made from spade-type drill bits. (this accounts for the number on each bit) To get the bit to work with my die grinder, I have a nose driver (from Ice Crafters) attached to the grinder. Screwed on to the nose driver is an adapter that I got from the Brices. This adapter accepts the 3/8” shaft of the bubble bit. I’m sure there’s an easier way to get there, but it works and the nose driver is quickly available to accept the burr bit that I normally have on it.

    Even though the bit, together with an adaptor, cost about $145, including shipping, the resulting detail made enough of an impression with this sculpture that it was easily worth it. The bits by themselves run about $110.