In competition, you sometimes have to make on-the-fly adjustments to your design, in order to adapt to unexpected difficulties. We had what we thought was a pretty solid plan for the multi-block event at the Ice Art Championships. However, at the last minute, we elected to make a significant change to our design to improve its overall impact. Unsurprisingly, we had to make a number of adjustments as the event proceeded. What we did not expect, however, was that the weather would be so warm (almost 50° F at one point!) and that forced us to make some additional decisions about the composition and structure of our piece. With each decision, we tried to make choices that would help keep the sculpture intact and maintain the visual impact, while trying to stay as close as we could to the core concept for our piece.

    For our design, the clarity of the ice was very important, because we were making a ship in a bottle. If the bottle ice wasn’t clear, you wouldn’t be able to see the ship. Initially, checks on the ice’s clarity were very promising (see below), but as the competition proceeded, the warm weather took its toll and, in the end, our bottle ice wasn’t clear enough. We discussed various possibilities, such as leaving the bottom end of the bottle open, but we finally decided to cut a window in the side of the bottle. As it turned out, that decided to be a smart move and it made for a real improvement in the sculpture after we lost the bottle’s clarity.

   

Initially, the ice for the bottle was very clear (unfortunately clear in this case). As the competition wore on, I think my teammates considered encasing ME in the bottle...

Everyone was in the bottle at some point. Later in the competition, the ice wasn’t as clear. Al is kind of hard to see in this photo.

Finally, we did end up going with the ship instead of a teammember in the bottle... Here’s a closeup of the window that we finally decided to cut. It turned out to be an excellent choice.

    The other major component of our design was a sea serpent that was trying to get a taste of Sïku Vodka from the bottle. Our serpent’s head ended up being adapted from a dragon sculpture that I’d done in the past. During the event, I tried to refer to the monster as a serpent rather than a dragon because the designs really were different, and it worked much better to have a serpent attacking the bottle rather than a dragon. Frequently, however, I or one of my teammates would slip and call it a dragon. Toward the end of the event, after the serpent had been placed, we noticed a large fracture that was apparently weakened by the heat. This made cutting a support strut risky, because the head and part of the neck of the serpent could fall. We finally decided not to cut the strut, but then we had to decide what to do with it. While we were trying to figure this out, Buddy Rasmussen walked by and yelled “Make it into fire!” Well, then we no longer called the monster a serpent; it became a dragon. Thanks Buddy!

What to do with an unplanned for support strut: “Make it into fire!”

    Of course, we weren’t the only team facing difficulties because of the record heat. Even the winning Realistic category sculpture, “Jonah,” was changed, albeit only slightly. Take a look at the indicated areas in the design closeup (that’s Steve Brice’s gloved finger at the upper left) and the final sculpture. Part of the change was obviously to bolster the tail’s support because of a dangerous fracture (discussed earlier), but the heat also came into play. Because the ice is weaker when it gets that warm, you need more support. To cut out that section is an unnecessary risk that might have brought the swimming Jonah crashing down..

There was even a compromise or two in the well-planned winning sculpture, “Jonah.” See a closeup below.

This detailed spot was initially supposed to be removed but was left in for support along with an extension of the wave (not visible in this photo)

    Later: A big design compromise...