ice carving secrets: fleur-de-lis design
ice carving secrets: fleur-de-lis design
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the fleur-de-lis is a very popular design down around New Orleans. The photo above shows a recent sculpture at a wedding. An oval with their initials was added to make it more personal.

This sculpture follows my “core-design” concept in which smaller pieces are tacked on to a larger core structure. The smaller pieces should be aluminum welded onto the larger. You should do the welding very early in the process and take a look at the graphic at the bottom with the red lines. These lines indicate where you should leave extra ice prior to and during the welding. You will get a better weld and you will protect the more delicate portions from breakage if you do this. You can also leave extra ice around the smaller pieces (just not on the welding surface,) and this will help also.

This carving can be cut from a full thickness block, but it works very well using just a four to five inch thick slab. In this case, however, you have to add a base piece for stability. So in addition to the slab, you would need a 20”x10”x4” piece also.
If you would like to use this design or any other design on this site, please check the design usage guidelines. The design collection page lists designs on the site.

fleur-de-lis design
4/21/07
a fleur-de-lis with initials added