Snow Sculpture from the Vermont State Snow Sculpting Champions

I got one of the many email communications today about the upcoming event in Colorado – plane itinararies and hotels and so forth – fun stuff. Vanessa, the wonder-organizer said it is supposed to snow 8 inches out there tonight! Exciting stuff – it was 50 or so in Burlington today… Here is the model – there still needs to be some shaping up – but the general gist I would say is as solid as its going to be. The guys briefcase fell down before I tool the pic and with the light it sure is hard to see what is going on with the doggie – but I am a pretty happy oily-handed camper right about now. Something in my mind clicked when I was looking at it and I started seeing the possibilities instead of the impossibilites – which is always a good sign…

We sat around the table and worked on the model and pretty much nailed it last night. I took a pic, but my phone seems to have lost it, but I need to get a better camera working on that anyway. We fit the whole thing – for the most part – inside the block, so while there will be little reconstruction of outside the block snow elements, there is still now the matter of dealing with the more then 1/3 of the sculpture that we need to demolish before we even start making something.

It is a lot of snow to move – many of the pros design to use as much as the block as possible – but we are not pros. 

We listen to some pretty spacey music when we make models, which reflects in the title of the post. Hearts of Space is a great NPR show – but after talking about it and thinking about the model I started thinking of how much of sculpture is really just space – and the hearts of the space is what makes the heart of the matter strong. 

I got the video camera. I got the 54″ floor scrapes. We think we have some good raffle prizes coming – stay tuned.

So – we were working on the model last night and we thought that after we made the cupula bigger we would be all set – but once we did that the man and the garbage can still looked to big – so now we have to redo them as well. And – as much as I said cutting snow off the block and building up whatever we needed to build up – it would be a lot easier if we didn’t have to deal with that, and just smash apart whatever we need to initially take off the snow sculpture block, instead of taking it off in an organized manner. So we need to scale everything down a little bit. I was hoping to have the model done to show everyone – PLUS I really want get the model done as soon as we can because I am doing some work for a company that makes 3D scanners – so if I can get it done and bring it with me when I have a meeting in there the woman said I can scan it – these things are like 30 grand – so this would be the one time I would be able to get close enough… what I thought I could do – once it is scanned – was to get it 3D printed! that way it could be any scale we want it to be!

There will be no coin drop in the city of Burlington for us. I tried my best – talked to the police chief – talked to the city counsel – it seems like it would be easier to add a cupola onto city hall and fill it screeching monkeys then to get permission to do a coin drop.

Dealing with scale when making the model does not involde weighing it. It involves making objects bigger and smaller. The whole idea is that we are making a scale model – one inch on the model equals one foot on the snow block – so we have to fit it into “the box”. We talk about “the box” alot – and not oddly enough, we are making the model in Brooke’s studio – which is called “the box”.

So we have to make one of the parts bigger. I think we solved the issue of the model falling over all the time by building the supports into the model making. We’ll see how that goes!

So I am applying to do a coin drop in Burlington – we’ll see what happens. Its hard to get anyone from the city to really acknowledge me since I organize a bike ride every year that is seen as somewhat radical, and seem to be on the radar for that project rather than this project – but we’ll see. Getting five guys to Colorado ain’t cheap though – so we need to do something…

I was think that in order to get the sculpture model to look like we need it to look like we might need to build a little frame to hang the guy model up from some suspension – and then underlay the supporting items – instead of what we were doing the other day, which was trying out different poses for the supports and then resting the guy on top.

This weekend we will probably do nothing – as there is a big bike ride! It’s not the bike ride that is seen as radical – it’s another one. I’ll try to post a picture early next week!

Well – here is my cell phone pic of the first draft of the model. We got togther at Brooke’s studio and sat around the table drinking beers and listening to The Radiator – Burlington’s local radio – which inspired us to no end. The model is hard to work with because – well – the guy is sort of floating – so he kept on falling over. Clay in general doesn’t really hold up to what we put through – but we got a good start and that is what we were after.

So – Snow Sculpture is mostly about the artistic process – so I thought it would be cool to detail the process as best I could in this dealio.

Many people ask us where we get the ideas from. Usually its Adrian, Brooke and I just bouncing ideas off each other. Last year in Breckenridge one of our lliasons, Emily, was hanging out rooting us on and asked us that very question. So we told her, but we also asked her what she thought would make a good snow sculpture. She responded with “A person getting blown by the wind.”

Adrian and I both lit right up – “Hey – that is a good idea…” 

The next submission we needed was Breck ’09 – so we talked about what to include in the sketch.

Then Adrian and Brooke drove up from Beantown together and they met me at the Flatbreads and this sketch was pretty much done – Adrian finalized it last time he and the fam were up and we were having coffee.

I then scanned it, took it apart and manipulated it slightly, raising the guy up in the air a bit in the front. I believe once we start the modeling phase the dynamics will insist on him being higher in the front… but we’ll see…  

So that’s how it starts. We need to make a model now – a scale model (1 inch on the sculpture equals 1 foot on the model) – and then see how it changes from the sketch. We are supposed to stay pretty close! But again… we’ll see…

It had to happen. The first time we could have gotten together to work on the model for Colorado we blew it off in favor of having fun. Oh well. It will get done. We did build a miniature golf course out of recycled materials – ran it for a couple of days during the South End Art Hop – then tore it all down – so there was some work getting done in the impermanent mediums department…. but to me this symbolizes a wonderful landmark in the year – where we blow off making models in lieu of drinking beers and having fun doing something else.

The one year Adrian couldn’t make it to the US National
Competition he made these awesome buttons with this saying-

“When Hell Freezes Over, We’ll Be There Sculpting” -

So – in my other life where I am a web designer and SEO expert -
one of my clients happened to be a Custom Lapel Pin maker – so -
so here we have the proof of the pins we are getting made!