Ice Sculptor

What do you do to protect yourself from extreme cold temperatures?

Asked by Jim almost 5 years ago

Thanks for your question Jim! To start with, I'd say that I don't spend much time in extreme cold. Although, if you ask people here in New Orleans, they'd probably disagree with that! They start breaking out the parkas whenever the temperature drops to the low 50s, lol. (With the high humidity here though, it does feel colder when it's cold.) I usually work at only about 19?F. It it gets below 15, I start having trouble with my ice cracking unexpectedly and then I have to open the door or adjust the thermostat to warm things up.

So far, the coldest temperature I've faced was -29°F. That was when I arrived at the Fairbanks airport during my last trip to Alaska. I showed up in my New Orleans clothing (shorts and a polo), walked outside to see how bad -29 feels, and then quickly threw on my new jacket that was waiting for me! That was cold, but from what I hear, it usually gets to around -45 at some point in Fairbanks each year. When it gets that cold, it seems to be a thing to put on swimsuit and go get a photo in front of the sign that shows the temperature. Not for me!

During that trip, we spent almost a week sculpting in -20° or so temperatures. It was pretty rough, and it's understandable that they usually suspend the competition when it gets to -30. That's genuinely dangerous, and the risk of frostbite is very real.

I get frostbite a lot, but the burns that I'm talking about are just from working with dry ice (-109?F) and those burns are no big deal, usually. When you're worried about frostbite in a cold environment, you're definitely thinking first about your extremities: hands, feet, and head (face and ears, mostly). Since you're using your hands a lot while sculpting, your fingers usually stay pretty warm, as long as you're wearing good gloves with liners. There's one big caveat, however. Many of the power tools we use blow air on your hands, so that actually makes it worse. Your toes and feet have it pretty rough. They're not moving around as much and they're always on the snow. That's why many of the extreme cold boots you see have very thick soles with lots of insulation. Many sculptors use special boots called bunny boots or Mickey Mouse boots. They're military issue boots that have different layers and are very good in extreme cold. However, they make you look like you have cartoon character feet :) Apparently, the white ones are for colder temperatures and the black ones are resistant to oil and diesel fuel. From what I understand, you can't really buy new bunny boots anymore, so you're always looking for them at the surplus stores, or maybe ebay. For your head, you have to have a good hat and a face mask. Scarves are usually a no-no, because they're legit dangerous with power tools. You don't want to pull an angle grinder towards your face if your scarf gets caught up in it. Same for very long hair. But your ears and nose are the most vulnerable to the cold, so your hat and mask have to keep them toasty. After a while, you start identifying the other sculptors by their hats, etc. Some of them get pretty crazy! One famous sculptor has very distinctive ear muffs.

Here are a couple of general rules I've run into: layers and cotton kills. These are two things that you hear over and over again when it comes to cold. Layers, in particular, is very true. You don't rely so much on one very thick layer of clothing. Instead, it's better to go with a lot of thinner layers. And you add layers or remove layers depending on how cold you're feeling. If you get too hot, that doesn't help, because you sweat. And then your sweat will freeze, which is bad. That's also related to "cotton kills." Sometimes you'll hear that because cotton isn't very well-suited to cold environments. It tends to absorb moisture, which wipes out most of its insulating qualities. I wear cotton layers when I'm in my home studio freezer, but like I said before, it's only 19°F in there, which isn't that cold. When I'm in Alaska (or Northern China, or Sweden maybe), I wear layers of synthetics, because they're designed to wick moisture away from your body, keeping you warmer. Natural isn't always better. (Although wool still works pretty well. But itchy!)

Finally, I'll throw in one more observation. When I start getting cold, I usually take it as a sign that I'm too tired. I need a break. My body is having trouble maintaining my core temperature, even though I might have on plenty of layers. So, I generally listen to my body and stop for a while, if it all possible. Rest seems to work better than even sitting in front of a fireplace. Recharging reenergizes my body for the next go round and the greater focus and productivity is usually more than worth the lost time.

Thanks again Jim, hope this answers your question!

Many speak of a science behind carving ice. What temperatures do you store the ice (to temper) (i) before carving and (ii) during carving? What band-saws and blades are used and temperature in which these are stored before making contact with ice?

Asked by Sam about 8 years ago

Hey Sam! Very good question! I am particularly interested in the science of ice since my education is in biology and chemistry. Physics might have been the ideal background, but I didn't really plan to become an ice sculptor, so...

There is kind of an ideal temperature range to sculpt ice at: 15?F to 25?F. I sculpt at about 19?F, right in the middle. Too cold, and your ice will crack if you apply much heat to it, and too warm and you have trouble freezing pieces together. Plus you don't have much margin for error if your freezer goes down or much of a core temperature for your sculpture if a delivery is a long ways away.

As for the blades, it's really the normal blades that people use for wood. I've used a bandsaw a lot, but the one I've used isn't mine, so I don't know much about the blade itself, except that I've never broken it. But it's pretty standard as far as I know. As for chainsaw chains, ice sculptors tend to make them more "dangerous" by removing some of the safety features that those cutting wood would need. That's because ice doesn't create much kickback when you cut into it, so it's significantly safer. Unless you count the whole electricity + water thing! (Mostly kidding, not a problem in a freezer!)

Thanks Sam for your patience! Sorry about my extended break from answering. I'll try not to do that again!

In Vegas at Gordon Ramsey restaurant . The sea food platter was amazing! 4 tier how do they or do they,reuse,clean because I can't see one use out it but we did sit and pick off it 4 2hrs .What about next use? Is there one?

Asked by Chris T. almost 10 years ago

Hi there Chris! If they had a seafood platter made of ice out at a restaurant, they won't reuse it or try to clean it as long as it's out for more than 3 or 4 hours. Especially when an ice display has food in it for any length of time, it tends to melt a little funny where the food is sitting. If it was used for only a short time, say the 2 hours you refer to, they could theoretically use it once more. But if it had 4 tiers, it would likely be difficult to disassemble and reassemble, so I would assume that it was a one time use. It's far simpler to use a new ice display each time. This might seem wasteful, but it's almost certainly the safest thing to do, and of course, the ice gets 100% recycled, one way or another :)

My apologies for taking so long to answer your question. I stopped working on my website a while back and wasn't sure that I'd keep sculpting. And I'll add one additional wrinkle, as we're now in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. The sort of sculpture you saw probably won't be seen again for a while, since it will probably take us some time to get back to the point where we can have large food displays where guests are free to visit as they wish. The era of the seafood brunch or buffet has gone on hiatus for a bit, unfortunately :/

Excuse me if somebody wanted you to sculpt a giant penis what you do it?

Asked by Peyton almost 5 years ago

Another thank you ever add coloring to the ice

Asked by Peyton almost 5 years ago