I am an ice carving master!
My block is 20x20x5″, about 75 pounds. I get one day out of summer quarter to play with ice. (and it was the best day besides farm days–summer school has been very demanding. Planning the wedding will be cake..) My teacher, Keijiro Miyata, ranked 2nd in the WORLD for ice carving, is one of my instructors this summer. He is very humble and seems to have patience for our ice carvings. That amazes me because it must be such a waste of ice to him for us to carve butterflies and flowers and guitars. My carving was going to be a penguin, but two people this quarter already did penguins and I wanted something different. I carved two lovebirds sitting on a branch today and it was not as hard as I thought. The ice was softer than I imagined and I was able to get a rough sketch quite easily. The hardest part was making these birds three dimensional. Their heads were blocky but I only had so much time before the ice melted too much. I will do some finishing touches in the morning and get a picture to post. But for now, enjoy one of the sculptures my teacher has done.