This ice block with luge tubing and flowers is about to be harvested.



For a double tube ice luge, two spiraling tubes and three flowers (silks) were frozen into an ice block. Then the block was shaped and the ends of the tubing were exposed so that the luges could be used. The following sequence of photos illustrates how the tubing and flowers were frozen into the block.



To position the tubing and flowers into the ice block, a section of green vinyl garden fencing is used to hold everything in place. The grid rectangles measure 2 inches wide by 3 inches high, so 10 rectangles crosses the width of the block tank. Another five on either side (for a total of 20) and you have enough to wrap the grid edges over the block tank edges so that it will stay in place. By the way, make sure to cut out a section where the pump is. It’s not absolutely vital, but it makes placing the grid later a little easier.



One of the advantages of using the grid is that you can position everything ahead of time, which is much easier because that way it’s warm and dry, rather than wet and brutally cold. You don’t want to do the wet and brutally cold way if you can avoid it! The even spacing of the grid also helps position the tubing and the flowers. Clips and/or cable ties can be used to hold the tubing and flowers in place. Make sure to cork the ends of the tubing before they ever get in the water too. Also, you’ll want to add a little tape to make sure the corks stay put. (I forgot that part this time; more on that later.)



Okay, so now the flowers, the tubing, and the grid are all in the water. With a Clinebell ice block machine, the ice forms from the bottom up, so the ice will slowly form up around the flowers and tubing. That is, of course, if you made sure that almost all the flowers and tubing were positioned on the down side of the grid. I probably forgot to mention that earlier. As the ice forms and starts to hold on to the various parts of the display, you can start to cut away parts of the grid and remove the clamps or cut the cable ties. How you go about this will be different for every display, because most displays will be different and the ice will freeze up a little differently each time. But you want to get rid of the grid without losing the positioning of your elements. By the way, this part will be cold when you have to reach into the almost freezing water and cut away the grid with snips. Neoprene gloves (ideally long ones that extend past your wrists) can make this less of a hand-numbing experience.



Sometimes, maybe because you have to go home and get some sleep or something like that, the ice will grab hold of something you don’t want it to: the grid. If it does that, probably no big deal. If it only barely has a hold of it, then you can just pull the grid out and the ice will reform. If it’s really got it, then you’ll have to use the hose that you fill your tank with to dig it out. If the tank is about to overflow because there’s a LOT of digging that has to be done, then stop, remove some water and then get back to digging the grid out. But be careful! When you do this, you’re adding a lot of heat to the tank. You won’t fracture the block or anything, but you’re going to set the freezing process back a bit and you’ll actually lose more than just the ice at the problem areas. Depending on how much water you have to use, you might lose a significant layer off the top of your forming block. Lose too much, and elements in your display might float free. It’s also going to take longer to form the block.



Here the grid is removed (mostly; you might be able to see a couple of pieces that don’t matter by the tubing ends). Now the ice is freezing up and over the flowers and tubing, completely encasing them in the ice. Once this is done, the block gets harvested. This time, harvesting was a little more difficult than usual, because the block liner leaked a little bit, letting water seep down and freeze around the bottom of the tank. The leak was probably caused by part of the cut away grid poking through the liner while the grid was being removed, so be careful that you don’t do that.



Finally, the block has been removed, it’s been shaped a bit, and the ends of the tubes have been exposed so that it can be used as a luge. Exposing the tubing ends is easier than you might think; just cut close to the tube all around it, then you can break the piece off. The tube will slide free and the ice might even hold on to the cork. Then all you have to do is cut the tubing to the lengths you want and attach funnels and you’re ready to go.

Earlier I mentioned that I should have taped the corked ends in this case. Because I didn’t, the corks leaked a bit and some water got into the tubes. That means ice formed in small sections of the tubing (on both of them) blocking the luge. One blockage was easy to remove with a little saltwater after the ice had tempered (try not to get the saltwater on the block itself), but the other blockage was more stubborn. You can work on a blockage with some flexible wire. In combination with the saltwater, you should be able to free a blockage unless it’s large or in a really bad spot. Another detail that would have improved the look of the luge would be small pieces of ice that went around the funnels. Freezing some additional small pieces that went around the upper tube endings would keep the funnels in a better position and made them look better. However, dealing with the tubing blockages keep me from attending to this detail before the event started. Next time perhaps...

P.S. (12/16/11): I’d forgotten that ice sculptor John Flottman had recently suggested a way to unblock frozen luge tubing. He hooked up a smaller tube to a Shark brand steamer, fed the smaller tube down into the blocked luge tube and blasted the blockage away with concentrated heat. He said that it didn’t damage the sculpture ice at all. To be on the side of caution, however, I’d make sure that your luge is tempered, so that it can handle the heat from the steam without fracturing.

Tags: luge, floral, Clinebell ice block machine, weddings, freeze-ins, inclusions, John Flottman