[ad_1]
Garrett Ness/Daily Miner Bob Lechtenberg and Josh Jakubowski, members of the national champion ice construction team Sculptora Borealis, build a sculpture on the campus of Michigan Technological University Saturday afternoon.
Houghton – Many ice sculptures keep their secrets close. Josh Jakubowski wants to share them.
“Several ice sculptures discuss this issue.” he said. “If you’re dead in your secret, no one will know and the sport won’t evolve … just knowing what tools to use and basic techniques and principles can make anyone create a very beautiful piece of art.”
Jakubowski and Bob Lechtenberg, champions of the National Ice Sculpture Championship, recently demonstrated their technique while building an ice sculpture on the porch of Scutora Borealis, JR Pelt and Van Opie Library at Michigan Technological University.
The tour is sponsored by the Tech Blue Key Honor Society, which hosts the annual Winter Carnival. This year’s carnival, theme “Sweets for Winter Feelings” It will be held on February 8-11.
Blue Key President Joe Dlugos hopes to get more students involved in the month-long, night-long parade that is a hallmark of the annual carnival.
“How to make a snow figure is passed down by word of mouth.” he said. “We want to bring these people in and teach them how to make an ice sculpture and give them a little different design and different ways in the master class. They use pure ice, and over the years many sculptures use ice and water, so it turns into ice. So it looks more pure with their sculpture.
Sculptora Borealis are the past two national ice sculpture championship winners and will defend their title at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin’s annual winter festival in early February.
Two weeks before that, they will represent the US at the World Championships in Stillwater, Minnesota.
Last weekend’s draft featured a slightly smaller canvas than the team normally does in competition: a 10-foot cube in Stillwater and an 8-by-8-by-10 in Lake Geneva.
Starting with an 8-foot cube — less than a third of the size of the larger carnival statues — the team created a detailed ice sculpture by setting up a coffee cup complete with spoons and coffee packets.
Tech’s marketing and communications multimedia specialist, Ben Jazczak, arrived at Sculptora Borealis for the tour after seeing some snow sculptures from national competitions.
“With the workload our students have and the size of the statue they are building, I thought it would be a great leg up for them to build with the techniques that allow them to do these beautiful finishes. Using less ice and being a little easier to cut on the hands; he said. “I thought, who better to teach him than a two-year national champion?”
The team spends more than 400 hours on the design; The clay models built on a twelfth level, can take 100 himself, Jakubowski. They indicate avoidance “cookie cutter” It sets up more research to see what has already been done (and overdone).
“We like to make sculptures that are a little more thought-provoking, with a deeper message.” he said. “And that’s really fun.”
By Saturday afternoon, they can clear the larger section of the snow and start a medium detailed job. They were also starting work on sugar dishes, sugar packets and spoons.
“We don’t have enough watches to look super polished and super stylish.” Jakubowski said. “But it will be close. It looks great. And there is a coffee shop inside, so it is very convenient.
Jakubowski was creating a cup of pouring cream in a coffee sink. To that end, he turned to a special tool developed by ice sculptors: a blade made from pet shears welded into a spiral.
“The peak there is very good in the snow.” he said. “If you use a flat blade, there’s more space to hit the snow, so it takes more force to get the snow off… All the years we’ve been doing this, you learn what tools work best, and then you build new tools and refine them.
A rough shape appeared on Saturday afternoon, and Jakubowski was looking at the detailed work ahead: the suction cups on the tent, the lip of the cup, the effect of waves where the creamer was pouring into the coffee.
That detail work is done with small chisels or custom tools. What Lechtenberg uses to create the movement is a custom-made stretched metal tool that sits on the handle of the grinder.
Using those sharp tools helps to reduce the fatigue on the joints, which can take a beating from the work days.
“I’m going to a therapist and I’m going to have all these problems solved in the spring.” Jakubowski said. “I’ll definitely be sick after two months.”
Dulugos said he enjoyed seeing the comparison to the size of the student-month statue.
“It’s a different complex than you usually see.” he said. “New and nice to see.”
Builders benefit from more than a weekend’s worth of Sculptora Borealis knowledge. The team filmed the build and provided a tutorial on tools and techniques for a video shared with Tech Winter Carnival teams. A few days before the carnival, they give a zoom lesson to the builders.
“We really want to influence the next generation and get them into this, because it’s really fun.” Jakubowski said. “You can come to a community and talk, and have a good time mingling.”
Sculptora Borealis members said that Houghton’s abundance of natural snow makes it a potential place for its own professional competition.
Located on Lake Geneva near the Illinois border, the race relies on artificial ice to provide enough for competitors, Jakubowski said. In natural snow, the tips of the snowflakes mesh together like gears. Artificial snow uses spherical water droplets, which are tightly packed.
They also give the snow a more gray color compared to the white of natural snow.
Natural snow is easier to mold because it is less dense, Jakubowski said.
“It’s definitely different.” he said. “i like it.”
[ad_2]
Source link
