"Sï-Bottle" ice sculpture in Fairbanks, Alaska, 2008

http://www.icecarvingsecrets.com
http://www.icecarvingsecrets.net

This was our entry at the 2008 World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Ice Art Championships is the most extreme ice carving competition in the world as each year, teams of 4 carvers spend 6 days carving 10 massive blocks of natural ice into fantastic works of ice.

We were sponsored by Sïku Vodka and our design reflected our sponsor's product. "Sï-Bottle" depicted a "sea battle" between a ship in a Sïku Vodka bottle and a thirsty sea serpent. Does the serpent want the ship, or just a little vodka?

We faced many challenges this year and we started a new team that had never carved together before (the team: Earl Covington, Al Fiel, David Fong, & Dawson List). Right off the bat, we had to redesign our sculpture to account for thinner ice blocks than we were expecting. When we redesigned the piece, we expanded and changed the vision of the sculpture, which later accounted for additional challenges. As the competition neared the final days, the temperatures soared, nearly reaching 50 degrees Fahrenheit on the final day. That's almost SEVENTY degrees above what might be expected in early March in Fairbanks! Uncertain welds and damaged ice forced us to further adapt our design to the circumstances while we lost valuable time making adjustments.

In the end, we didn't do as well as we'd hoped, but we had a sculpture that stood and nobody got hurt. We certainly learned a lot this year and we'll take these valuable lessons with us as we prepare for future events.

Want to find out more? Visit http://www.icecarvingsecrets.com. To find out more about Sïku vodka, visit http://www.sikuvodka.com and for more information about the Ice Art Championships, visit http://www.icealaska.com.

Video and photos by Dawson List. © 2008 Dawson List

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