Cupid and hearts sculpture in Albuquerque, NM



*updated 1/27/12

What's in a name…

I’ve had this ice sculpture design in my portfolio for a long time and I’ve used it for a number of weddings. When I first had to come up with a name for the sculpture, I'd call it a "Cupid with hearts." I thought it a nice depiction with Cupid, a god of love, bringing two hearts together. Later, because I was coming up with a number of ice sculpture designs that depicted babies with wings in one way or another, I decided to change the name of the sculpture to what I thought was the more generic "cherub with hearts." That turned out, technically, to be a misnomer, and a common one at that. Cherubs, strictly speaking, are a powerful order of angels that, according to Ezekiel, resembled a mix of four different creatures combined with living fire. Although cherubim are described as also having wings, the rest of that description doesn't really sound like a cute baby boy with curly hair.

So what do you call those little flying babies that adorn everything Valentine's Day-related, as well as a bunch of art from the Baroque and other periods? Technically, they're called puti. Just one is called a putto. Now I don't imagine that suddenly I'll start hearing the word "putto" as we near February 14th. After all, I'd never heard of it before I started learning more about cherubs/cherubim. But if you want some sort of guideline, there also seems to be a religious vs. secular distinction. If it's in a religious context, it's more likely a cherub; if it's secular or profane, it's a putto. Not surprisingly, because of all the confusion, the meaning of "cherub" has started to change, as words tend to do over time.

So what does all this confusion between cherubs and putti mean? For me, it means that I'm taking the route of least resistance and going back to calling this design "Cupid with hearts." (But I'll know what they mean if someone asks for a "putto with hearts." But they won’t.)



Going back to more mundane matters, this ice sculpture design violates an important guideline for carving human figures from ice in that he faces forward. Generally a head in profile offers a much better ice silhouette, but it doesn’t work well with this particular design. You can see in the photo at top how hard it is to make out his facial features (and the bad photo doesn't help much).

The design can be personalized by putting the names of the bride and groom in the hearts. Almost always, the bride is listed first, in the left heart as you face the sculpture. Always make absolutely sure that you have the correct spelling for any names that you put on a sculpture! Otherwise, you’ll hear about that misspelling for a LONG time. (So far, knock on ice, I've managed to spell every name correctly. I did, however, misspell "anniversary" once at a corporate event. Oops…)

There are a couple of different ways to approach this sculpture, one a bit more difficult than the other. In the more difficult version, the main portion of the carving can be cut from a single block while the wings can be cut from a separate 20”x20” slab of ice that's 2-3 inches thick. After they’re carved, you can attach them to the back of the sculpture with flat welds. So don’t work much on his back until the wings are welded on, or you’ll mess up the nice flat welding surface. If you like, and are up to the challenge of moving a much more delicate ice sculpture, you can attach the wings somewhat angled away from the back to give the sculpture more depth.



It's suggested that the wings are attached instead of trying to get them from the block because you need most of the full thickness of the block for the chest and shoulders, as the figure is turned slightly. However, in the simpler version of this piece, the wings are not carved separately; there is no welding. This creates a depth issue, so if possible, get an ice block that's thicker than usual for this sculpture; raw untrimmed ice blocks are often significantly thicker than trimmed, boxed blocks.



There are other ways to get around the depth issue, but if you do decide to attach the wings, be sure that their weight doesn't unbalance the sculpture. If it does, make adjustments to the base of the sculpture and/or lighten up the wings. Delicate wings are preferable to thick ones, unless you're trying to figure out how to move the sculpture.



If you have any questions about this piece, email me or comment below. If you would like to use this ice sculpture design or any other design on this site, please check the design usage guidelines. The design collection page lists designs on the site.

You might also find photos and info from this entry on the ice carving secrets facebook page and you can comment there as well as below. Thanks!

Tags: cherub, putto, Cupid, hearts, snowfill engraving, weddings, Valentine's Day, anniversaries