This is nothing new, lots of carvers have floated ice sculptures in a pool. There’s even a special tray designed for this idea called a “sculpture island.” The sculpture island is a bit more elegant solution for this sort of presentation, but in this particular case, the plastic pirogue that we used worked out just fine. You see, a pirogue is a small, flat-bottomed boat commonly used in the swamps of Louisiana. Because this event was in Baton Rouge, a pirogue wasn’t out of place at all.

    There’s lots to think about if you’re going to display your ice in water like this. Obviously, the main problem is the platform. The pirogue solved the problem for me because it could easily handle the weight and wasn’t really prone to tipping over because of the flat bottom. But a real boat won’t work in most situations. Whatever solution you come up with needs to be stable and able to support the weight without sinking. The base of the sculpture can’t be in contact with the warmer water because it will melt faster than rest of the sculpture and eventually tip over. Unless you build an actual structure in the water, the sculpture display needs to be anchored somehow unless you want the sculpture to float randomly around. In this case, the pirogue had an anchor that we put in the center of the pool to keep it there. But the boat still turned some unpredictably, so it was not really possible to keep the logo facing one direction. However, because guests were free to move around the whole pool, that wasn’t really an issue.

    Once we figured out how to more or less keep the ice where we wanted it, we thought about lighting it for the night-time party. Running a cord to the boat wasn’t a good idea, so battery operated LED lights were a simple solution. Underlighting is often the best option for ice, but when logos are colored with sand, they need to be front lighted some because the light won’t travel through the sand. So we chose LED lights that had flexible armatures so that the light could be easily aimed at the front of the sculpture.

    Finally, when you do a pool sculpture, somebody needs to plan to get wet. If somebody doesn’t, then somebody probably will anyway, one way or another. I’m sure it’s possible not to, especially if it’s a small pool, but if you plan on it and accept it, then the setup is safer and easier. Even if you can get the ice onto the display platform without anyone in the water, how are you going to get the anchor to the right spot? Just have someone bring a bathing suit and make everything easier. Besides, that’s the fun job!