🦃✨ Thanksgiving Ice Sculptures: Behind the Carving
Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times of year in our carving studio, bringing a new mix of custom sculptures, food displays and event pieces through our doors. Behind each finished piece is a process that starts with an idea and continues through design, production, delivery and final setup. Here’s a look at how our Thanksgiving ice comes together.
🦃🧊 Thanksgiving Traditions In Ice
A single block of ice can become a fully three-dimensional turkey in just one to two hours. Angelito Baban carves each one by hand, working around the block to form the body, wings and layered feather details. These pieces have become a recurring Thanksgiving project, including multiple turkeys carved for Army holiday meals.
From Idea to Design ✏️🧊
Before a sculpture reaches the ice, it starts as a digital design. Our designer uses VCarve, a computer-aided design program, to size the artwork and map out the shapes, depths and details that will guide the carving process. With a background in media, Kane can take a reference photo, logo or even the beginning of an idea and translate it into a three-dimensional design ready for production.
🛠️❄️ Where the Carving Begins
Once a design is approved, the next step depends on the type of sculpture. For 2D pieces, our production supervisor sets up the designer’s file on the CNC, which can spend hours carving the design into the ice. Once the machine work is complete, he adds color and finishing touches by hand, checking the details and quality before the sculpture leaves the studio. More dimensional 3D sculptures head to our carver, who hand-carves each piece and brings the design to life from every angle.
Holiday Delivery & Setup 🚚❄️
Holiday event days start early at the shop. Before heading out, our team reviews what’s going where and makes sure each setup is packed with the right equipment, from display trays and drainage buckets to chisels, gloves, water bottles and luge tubing when needed.
Once on site, having someone available to direct our team to the exact placement helps keep setup moving smoothly. We position and secure the ice, give chefs time to arrange food on any carved displays, then add lighting and make the final adjustments before leaving the piece ready for the event.
From design and carving to delivery and setup, our team handles every step of the process. Bring us your Thanksgiving idea and we’ll help turn it into ice. We recommend reaching out 2–4 weeks in advance to allow plenty of time for design and production during the busy holiday season.
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