When you first come up with a design for a competition, unless you have to carve it right away, the odds that it will look the same in the end are pretty slim. Our Alaska design has gone through several versions already and who knows what will change by the time we start carving. The first version is at the very bottom, the latest above. My teammate David Fong, came up with the idea of adding a clear figure aspect to the carving, thus the revisions. We’re also dealing with a thinner block than we expected, so we’re having to make some adjustments for that as well. However, last year, we didn’t find out about a difference in the size of our ice until we got up there, so knowing about it before we even leave helps a lot in our planning.

    This “design evolution” that’s happening with our competition piece also happens with my standard carvings, just at a slower pace. Each time I carve a piece, I try to think of ways to make it better and if I think of something, I’ll try to incorporate that idea into the next time I carve it. Most successful carvers take a similar approach and over the years, you’ll sometimes see dramatic differences in their “standard” pieces. For example, the swan design I carve now is not the same design I carved 15 years ago.