Article by Kenzie Strichler,
On The Edge Student Reporter,
Edgewood Middle School

At February’s Fire and Ice First Friday there were ice sculptures to represent different stores downtown or other stores around town on the sidewalks. For example, in front of the new coffee shop there was a snow flake. Every store asked for something and the sculptors sculpted it from ice. Also in front of First Federal there was the sculpture of their building. In front of the Mad Anthony’s there was a beer stein. In front of Century Link there was their logo. In front of the court house there were two; a sled and a cross. At Monteith Tire there was a tire. In front of Meridian there was a Red Wings logo.

Sculptors use multiple tools to give the ice it’s shape. Each sculpture took about 3-4 hours to sculpt. Sculptors us a six prong, lay-out jig and other tools for precision. Tools for fusion include hand saws, nail boards and more. A chainsaw, handsaw, six prong, flat chisel, bullet burr bit on a heavy duty die grinder, angle grinder, junichi keyhole saw, ice knife, V-chisel, V or straight bit on a die grander and a straight bit or ice needle on a dremel tool are the basic tools used for making an ice sculpture.

The art of ice sculpture can be found would wide. In Quebec’s Winter Carnival there was a ice castle.

In Japan they have team sculptors who compete in competitions where the end results are the size of multi story buildings. In the United States, Alaska holds the annual World Ice Art Championship. They typically have 45,000 people come. These championships are focused around using the chainsaw to sculpt.

(Editor’s Note: The article above was selected from the Edgewood Middle School student written magazine On The Edge. Future articles will be selected from the magazine and will be featured on StaceyPageOnline.com. Topics will include, but are not limited to, sports, community news, school news, current events and entertainment news. Please contact Alyssa Richardson at [email protected] with questions.)