I’ll end up listing this in the design section, but there’s really no design here, just an idea. However, it’s not even my idea and I have no idea who was the first to try it. But it can be a very effective piece, even though most of the time, there’s almost no actual ice carving involved.

    If you’ve never seen this done before then you’re first thought is probably “What a great idea!” That was what I thought when I first saw this idea (honestly, though, I can’t remember where I saw it.) I’ve also encased a real aquarium with real fish inside ice (the fish survived because we made every effort to make sure they did.) Comparing the two versions, I’d say that the fake fish version is actually more effective and certainly easier to incorporate into a larger display. Below, we incorporated an aquarium block into a seafood ice bar.

    If you decide to make your own frozen aquarium, you’ll have to solve two main problems: 1) where to get the fake fish, etc. and 2) how to freeze them into an ice block.

    Finding the fish can be more difficult than you might think. The ones in the block at the top came from a Michaels crafts store. They carry a line of small plastic figures from a company called Safari, Ltd. However, I had to check more than one store, because not all of them carried fish figures. Next time, I’d probably order directly from Safari’s website. I found a couple of other sites on the web that might be good sources as well: tapirback.com and Celebrate Express. Certainly, some toy stores also carry plastic fish and it occurred to me that the gift shops at a large aquariums and beach side souvenir shops might be other sources. The plants and gravel were much easier; I just used gravel and fake plants for regular aquariums from a Walmart. There are also a number of shells that are hard to see in the photo above; they’re real and I think they came from a craft shop.

    To get the fish into the ice, I used a Clinebell ice machine, along with a wire grid, some small clamps, and some cable ties. For a description of this procedure, check out the earlier entry on freezing items into blocks. It requires a bit of patience and some careful timing, but it’s not terribly difficult as long as you have access to a Clinebell machine. You’ll probably also want some neoprene gloves to keep your hands from freezing; at some point, you’ll have your hands in that cold water for longer than you’d like.