For the last couple days I have spent quite a while inside of a building that they hoped to maintain at about 26 degrees. Why, you ask? I attended the ice carving event that was part of the Festival of Lights in Hamburg, N.Y.

Years ago when a cousin and her spouse began to be involved in the art of ice carving I put together an article to let everyone from our area read about it. Now the sport/art form has been passed to another generation of the family.

Melanie and Ben Firth, residents of Alaska, are the couple in question. Ben still remains active in the sport. In 2016 Ben with his son Barnabus competed in the World Championship Ice Carving Event in Fairbanks, Alaska. He earned the first place in the Abstract portion of the contest. Melanie Andersen Firth and Ben are both graduates of Eisenhower High School with family still in this area.

It was a treat to accompany Melanie as she visited her son and daughter who were participating in the ice carving event at the Erie County Fairgrounds. She told us that her children had wielded chisels since they were very young accompanying their parents when they carved. Since we were family we were treated to a behind the scenes visit while the carvers were busy with their work.

We went up on Saturday afternoon to check on Aurora and Silas’ progress. They took time out from the carving to greet us, but soon returned to work. They had everything planned out to get the original creation finished on deadline.

Eleven teams assembled in the climate controlled building called appropriately, “The Igloo”. This was the second year for the contest and one of contest managers told us they hope to be able to hold the finished sculptures until just before Christmas. Many of the team members who competed do ice carving professionally having whetted their appetites in the culinary field doing special event carvings.

The array of tools available to some of the carvers was awesome. Carvers who drove in brought a large supply of complicated tools to use. Each station had a different assortment of tools such as chisels, chain saws, leaf blowers, sanders, and flat metal plates that were used to adhere the ice as needed.

To begin the process the artist sent in a drawing of what was to be his/her team’s sculpture. Once it was approved many of the carvers made a three-dimensional model of what they would be carving. Aurora and Silas transported a clay model of their sculpture with them from Alaska.

This is a team event with multiple blocks that must be molded together. Each team received blocks totaling 4800 pounds of quality ice. Melanie explained that the teams were penalized for the amount of the blocks that they had not made use of when it was time to judge.

The teams were in various stages of creation with sculptures awaiting additional pieces to complete their design. When we left Saturday evening most artists had completed the basic part of the sculpture. Since most of the creations were taller than the sculptors, platforms were necessary. We saw many techniques during the time we visited. I do not pretend to understand them all, but it was certainly fascinating to see the artists at work. Luckily, Melanie, who has carved in competition, was able to interpret some of the steps for us. The room where the carvers were working was approximately 24 degrees as we entered, but warmed up considerably as spectators entered and left.

While I was satisfied with what I saw on Saturday, when the opportunity arose to go back I jumped at the chance. I wanted to see the completion of the sculptures and of course the results of the carving contest.

There were carvers from throughout the U. S. and from Canada. I noticed that each team had their own technique for getting the work done. While one of the carvers worked on the portion that would become the base, the other often worked on the accessorizing pieces that would be added.

Melanie told us that Aurora is the designer. They work so well together they do not even have to talk.  Once the design is submitted for the contest, father, Ben tweaks things to be sure they are able to be executed.

I was just so impressed with everything. It was fun to watch the artists at work. We arrived on Sunday about a half hour before all carving had to be completed. It was simply amazing what those carvers had been able to achieve in just a few hours. The sculptures looked considerably different than when we left them on Saturday. All of the special effects were now in place to present the pieces to the judges.

These massive pieces of art are not without risk. The artists press the limits to impress the judges with their work. Sometime risks pay off and sometimes they do not. About five minutes to five on Sunday there was a huge crash and one of the eleven entries toppled over. How heartbreaking that had to be to have put in all those hours and come all that distance just to have a pile of ice to show for your work!

The team that I came to observe also pressed the limits with their creation, but they did it successfully. At the awards ceremony they were rewarded with a fifth place. That was quite a feat I believe for a team that did not come with a full complement of tools because they flew in. They are just a couple of Alaska homeschooled kids who love what they do. It must have been rewarding for this brother/sister team, really the youngsters of the group, to triumph over some of the professionals.

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell, Pa. Contact at hickoryheights1@verizon.net