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How to Carve Ice Sculptures

An ice sculpture is formed strictly from ice. This means the end result does not have a long life expectancy and must be enjoyed for only a brief time. Ice sculptures are often found at weddings, graduations and other gatherings, providing a temporary elegant decor. Ice sculpting is a good place to start if you've ever wanted to try your hand at carving. Since the material is less expensive and easier to work with, many beginning sculptors use ice sculpting as a starting place for a career in sculpting other materials.

Things You'll Need

  • Ice block
  • Tracing paper
  • Hammer
  • Chisel
  • Chainsaw
  • Die grinder
  • Tracing tool
  • Grinding burr
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Instructions

    • 1

      Trace your design on tracing paper large enough to cover the block of ice you want to carve. Place the traced image on your ice block. The tracing paper will stick to fresh ice without an adhesive.

    • 2

      Trace the image for your sculpture using a die grinder with a tracing tool bit, working at room temperature. Place the tip of the bit just outside the line of the image you want to carve into the ice. Go over the image with the tracing bit. Do not apply much pressure. All you want to do is transfer the lines of your sculpture to the ice.

    • 3

      Remove the tracing paper after you've transferred your image to the ice. The ice will have begun to warm at this time, allowing you to slide the tracing paper away from the ice block.

    • 4

      Cut away the larger portions of the ice that isn't part of your design with a chainsaw. Think of this as roughing out. Use the chainsaw only to remove large portions of non-design ice.

    • 5

      Cut away the smaller portions of ice with a burr grinder. This entails more detail work. Cut the smaller non-design areas of the ice to finish the rough form of your sculpture. If necessary, you can use a small chisel and hammer to clear away hard-to-reach areas. Be careful not to carve into your design outline if you use a chisel. Keep your angle at 90 degrees and tap away the excess ice.

    • 6

      Smooth your roughed-out sculpture using a small hand-grinding tool. Any rotary sander will do as long as you can get to the places that are hard to reach. Smooth the surfaces of your sculpture without applying too much pressure. It's easy to take away too much ice during the sanding process. Finalize your sculpture by refining the lines and smoothing the texture.

Sculpture

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