ice carving secrets: Igor design
ice carving secrets: Igor design
Yeah, I know Halloween is a ways off. I carved this design for an event with a “Martini Madness” theme; the booth had a mad scientist theme and Igor fit right in. Igor is, of course, “the traditional stock character or cliché hunch-backed assistant or butler to many types of villain, such as Count Dracula or a mad scientist, familiar from many horror movies and horror movie parodies.” (from Wikipedia)
I kind of made up my own version of Igor, but I made sure to keep some of the most common Igor characteristics so that he would be recognizable, even in ice. The hunchback, the prominent, bulging eyes, a certain distortion in his features, and the serving tray all were included to provide visual clues for quick recognition. And just in case, I snowfilled “Igor” into the base of the sculpture so that there could be no mistake. Igor has a cartoonish style and this is most evident in his eyes. I gave him very small pupils and snowfilled in the whites of his eyes so that they would really stand out. This sculpture breaks a basic design rule for ice sculptures in that the head faces the viewer rather than being done as a profile. The eyes are the reason for this; the snowfilling wouldn’t be effective with the head in profile.
Cut away extra support ice (indicated in red on the template) only after you’re sure that the weld for this design has set. Use the aluminum welding technique for a strong and clean weld. It also helps if you’ve already cut away a lot of the excess ice from the top piece before you weld it to the bottom.


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Igor design
5/12/09
I foolishly left my real camera at home, but my camera phone managed an adequate photo.