I’m posting this ice sculpture design a little early; it’s not quite finished. But I needed to add some info about the contest and it couldn’t wait, so here it is. Pretty much all the details for this design are here, but it will be updated later. I’m also waiting on a photo of the sculpture, as I unexpectedly couldn’t be there for the set up when it was put in place.

    This design requires a block and a half of ice: on full block for the ball and most of a half block slab for the base and tee. The full block is split into two square pieces, which are then welded together and cut down to a 16” cube. From this cube, a 16” diameter sphere or ball is cut, leaving the bottom flattened so that it can be welded to the tee. From the half block slab (at least 4” thick”), you’ll cut a base slab, the grass and tee portion, and the tee top. The grass and tee are welded to the base and then the tee top is cut down to 2” thick and welded to the grass and tee section. During set up, the ball will be welded to the top of the tee.

     After the ball is sculpted and smoothed, the dimple pattern is applied (which is one of the hard parts). I used a 1.5” Forstner drill bit to add the pattern the last time, but I was only somewhat happy with the results. I’m looking into a burr bit that would do a better job. The Forstner bit fractured the ice around the dimples and left a tiny mark in the center of each dimple. But it did work and the client was very happy.

    To add the dimples, I started with a single band that went most of the way around the ball. Then I concentrated on replicating the pattern below until the ball was covered. I was carving in a freezer, so I used a magic marker to map out my cuts before I did any damage to the ice.

    Look for more about this design soon!

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