make snow sculptures! The weather was perfect on Saturday for the 4th Annual Chicago Snow Sculpting Competition in nearby Mount Prospect, Illinois. Fifteen professional 3-person teams and a dozen high school teams
entered the competition, including two foreign teams: one from Canada
and one from The Netherlands.
(If Yolanda Elizabet's weather is at all representative, I can't imagine that the Dutch team gets much practice at home.) Most of the teams are from Wisconsin.
This isn't like making a snowman, it's more like carving a stone statue. Each team creates a clay mockup of their proposed sculpture. A week before the event, large blocks of snow are made by using a snow machine to blow snow into large wooden boxes. The snow is then packed down. Each team starts with an identical 10-foot tall block of snow and begins carving on Wednesday. Many work through the night to have the sculpture finished for Saturday morning, when the event opens to the public and the judging begins. This year, the winner was decided by public vote. Deciding on a favorite was very difficult.
"The Fat Lady Swings"
The detailing on each one is incredible, even on the back. It's amazing all the hard work put into something that will melt away.
The team that created this sculpture,
The Starvin Carvists (love the name), won first place at a competition in Italy last month. I almost voted for "Flight of the Zephyr" because of its technical proficiency and its Chicago theme - sailing on Lake Michigan past the skyscrapers.
My son did, but my gardener's heart made me choose this one instead:
It reminds me of a garden pond in the middle of summer. Apparently, lots of other people feel the same: this took home the prize.
I've decided to include this post in Jodi's Garden Blogger's Geography Project as it is not about gardening, but instead about a regional attraction. Finally, I promise that this is the last snow post for the near future. I'm out of here this week for my annual pilgrimage to Florida. If anybody wants me, I'll be at the beach.