No matter how realistic your ice sculptures are, they should never move.
If they do, they're only going to end up going one direction: DOWN.

*updated 12/11/11



In an earlier entry, I talked about sculptures that fell because they slid off of the display. Unless you have a compelling reason for your sculpture to move around, you should always be sure that the ice stays put.

Ice slides on plastic. Period. If you put fabric between the ice and the plastic, you can stop it from sliding. I often use a single cloth napkin and I try to keep it from blocking any uplighting. If there’s no uplighting, I sometimes put a tablecloth under my sculpture and use the excess to ruffle around the base. Be sure that any cloth you use stays inside the tray. If it extends outside the tray, water will soak up into the fabric and leak from the fabric outside the tray.

Some displays, such as the rotating tray from Gourmet Display, have little pegs that stick up and help keep your ice in one place.

If you salt ice that you put around your sculpture (Don’t salt the sculpture itself!), the ice will melt and refreeze together so that it will generally hold the sculpture in place.

If you’re assembling a sculpture, be sure to keep your foundation pieces from sliding as this will make assembly much easier.



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

Earlier comments

The following comment was on the original blog entry. After some technical difficulties etc., the blog was reconstructed, and this was the only way to keep the original comments. Unfortunately, the hyperlinks from the original comments are gone in some cases. You can add your own new comments at the bottom.

Anonymous

To keep an ice sculpture from sliding I use a couple strips of card board under the ice. white cardboard almost disappear.
Saturday, March 31, 2007 - 09:07 PM

Tags: safety, accidents, display trays