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.