Progress, Progress, Progress

Nee-How (Hello in Chinese) readers...sorry to have been away for awhile, but its been a busy week here at ICE. Before we get started..a quick hello to my brother who is in Japan this week for work. While he was away, his hometown of San Diego caught fire, and his wife and daughter had to evacuate their home. All is ok the last I heard from them. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the people who were and still are in danger out there.

On a happier note, Elizabeth had her 29th birthday this week...Happy Birthday !!!

Now onto ICE...The entire exhibit is in full swing...Here are some before and after photos...Click on them to get a closer view. If you havent seen the previous blog posts yet, you can click on the list on the right column and see what we had going on last week....and dont forget to click on the comment link at the bottom and leave me a message...




The above photos are from the Nativity..from the blocking to the rough carving and into the detail carving...the photo below...although disturbing is part of the process as well. After the carving has been started, they "bag" them to keep them safe from wind and and air in the tent. The sublimation, ice evaporation, is an inevitable part of the process that has to be slowed down as much as possible.Since it is so cold in the tent, we dont have a problem with melting, as much as we do evaporation due to the wind circulation.

Below we have our Christmas Train..the progress is exciting. This is a very involved structure as it has so many layers of ice, as well as adjoining colors.


Up next...the Candy House...looking more edible everyday...I dont reccomend licking the ice. The colored Ice has food grade coloring in it to make the blocks safe and look like giant popsicles, But as the event staff likes to remind those who choose to touch and lick.." do you really think that you are the first person to lick that today?

So here is a photo from a couple of days ago..and a video of walking around it yesterday


Next, here is a progress photo of our slide. Due to the size of it, its hard to get a real feel for what it is at this point..but as we get closer the photos will become more clear..




Last..a few others...the swans for the forest..the coca cola bears ( they are a big sponsor of the event) Santa in progress....



So much for the ice carving....despite this little ice show that we put on, the real advantage of having a 15,000 square foot refrigerated tent...


It gives you a place to store your chicken...

COME ON OVER TO MY HOUSE

We had a long weekend here at ICE in Orlando. Yes, we work weekends too. Due to the fact that we work in ICE, and the medium itself can only last for so long, the length of the life of the attraction starts when the carving starts, not when the first audience member walks in on November 17th. Therefore the carving period is for 3o consecutive days.
Since the schedule is grueling, the first weekend that carvers are here, they have a big party. Satruday, they did a half work day and then retired to their hotel for a feast. This feast also includes some pretty potent rice wine, that comes in a bleach like bottle, and that it tastes about the same. I stay away from the "White Lightning" as we have come to refer to it..and stick to my Guinness. All the guys get pretty loopy off of the rice wine and have a good time.Ah, yes..the feast...Sliced pigs ear, Pork and Cabbage salad with noodles, Spam, Potatoes onions and carrots (oh my), Sardines with with femented soy beans, Roast Duck, and Breaded pork...and theres my Guinness in the lower left , and that glass of "water" to the right is the dreaded "White Lightning". The feast is actual a fun event for all of us. It takes us away from the challenges of the ice tent and into a more social environment. Unlike most American meals where you eat lots of food and chit-chat...this was more of a meal where you talk alot and eat a little for a long time. We spent about two and half hours at dinner and everyone just picks at the plates a little at a time. Except for the translators who starve because they dont get a chance to eat.

Enough on the feast...when I last left you...we were looking at a block of ice on its way to become a penguin...well here they are..in all their penguin glory.

BIRTHING A PENGUIN

Today we started some detail carving. More specifically the detail carvers began the Penguins in the Slide area. The Pictures below will show you the process that is involved.
Blue ice blocks anxiously lined up to be chainsawed into a christmas penguin.
After being rough cut with a chainsaw, the pieces are fit together and then water poured over them to freeze them together. The temperature is only 12 degrees, so the "glue" sets up pretty quick.Then they bring out the tools are start hacking away. This amount of carving takes place in about 2 minutes.


Heres a little video of the carving process.

All else is on the move. The Candy House is getting really tall, the Nativity is well on its way, and the Train as well.... Here are some pictures..
Candy House.......See the guy on the Scaffolding...the highest point is 18'-0"

Ice lighting...here you see the base course of ice for the slide walls. There is a long trough cut into the ice into which they place LED lights. These lights will illuminate the slide walls from the inside. The curious fact is that the lights cant touch the ice, as the heat from the lights melts the ice...so they take the used chopsticks from lunch and set them into the ice and the hang the lights off of them so they dont actually touch the ice...

Enough for today...Zai Jian (zy-jien)...(goodbye in Chinese) here is picture of me and Mr. Lee..hes the art Director from the HCC side of things...I will send out the penguin birth announcement on the next posting..Stay tuned

ICE - The Basics

The attraction is an all ice walk-thru exhibit themed for Christmas. The carvers, 40 artisans flown here from Harbin China, will spend about 30 days carving ice in an insulated refrigerated tent.The tent is approximately 15,000 square feet and is kept at temperature of about 12 degrees. After carving, the exhibit will be open for about 6 weeks, and will have an attendance of about 180,000 people.

Todays pictures will give you an idea of the work that goes into the design of the event. The lead designer Bill Hoffman, creates hand drawn illustrations accompanied by hand drawn detailed specifications of each piece of the exhibit.

ICE CARVING DAY 3

The first few days of carving are kind of un-eventful. There is a lot going on, but it involves architectural, engineering and structural set-up. Before the carvers arrive, they spend time determining how to build the structures that have been designed. Some are pretty straightforward, but others involve a bit of thinking.

The photo above shows a couple of steps in the process. If you look on the floor, you can see the white paint lines. This layout work is done by the three art directors weeks before the carving period begins. All of those lines are based on the original plan and are laid out in full scale on the floor, as a guide for the builders when stacking the ice. Second step is the blocking of us, actual stacking everything. This is where the heavy lifting, machinery and scaffold come into play, not to mention hard hats. Each ice block weighs 300 pounds and we will use almost 5000 blocks at this venue.

This next photo shows the beginning of the Nativity. This is an all clear ice structure and will eventually hold a life-size clear ice Nativity. This will be fun to follow on your end, as the carving is really impressive.

This last photo shows a carving of a column capital. The nativity has four columns, each with one of these capitals atop of it. This piece is about 24' wide and tall and weighs about 200 lbs.

More to come. This will all take off at a rapid pace over the next few days. Please click on the comments below and let me know what you think so far. Please ask questions, Im loaded with information that most people dont care about so if your interested it gives me a reason to babble.