Meet Ice Sculptor Dawson List

It was over ninety degrees in New Orleans, but ice sculptor, Dawson List, was dressed as if in the arctic tundra. The insulated jacket, water-proof boots, heavy gloves, and multiple layers beneath are absolutely essential...for the long days Dawson spends chopping, chiseling, and grinding ice into art. "Ideally you want to carve the ice in an environment that is around fifteen to twenty degrees, Dawson said as we entered the industrial walk-in freezer that serves as his studio. There was ice everywhere: stacked in 300 pound blocks waiting to be carved, shavings that looked like fresh fallen snow covered the floor, and finished sculptures were wrapped in thermal sleeping bags to prevent damage.

The freezer, however, is not where an ice sculpture begins,Dawson explained. f it's a high-end sculpture, not a swan, it is drawn out; the design is plotted out on a computer. The template is printed out actual size and placed on the ice. Then you cut through the paper into the ice. I use a chainsaw, angle grinder, abrasive buffing tools, and chisels. There is really no end to the variety of tools you can use to make an ice sculpture.This process works fine when Dawson is dealing with small scale sculptures. When working on larger pieces, like the twenty five foot high sculpture of a Native-American warrior, for which Dawson's team took second place in the World Ice Art Championships, the process is a little more complex.

In larger pieces you have to have several printed templates, placed next to each other,Dawson said. For the larger sculptures, I often have to melt two pieces of ice together. When melting two pieces together, I use a heavy square of milled aluminum and an iron for a heat source. Using this method, I can take an arm, and stick it onto a torso: It's a vertical weld. Also, from time to time, a piece of your sculpture will break off. I use the same process to replace a broken section.