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  • - My name is Shintaro Okamoto, I'm an ice sculptor.

  • Today I've been challenged to create an ice sculpture

  • in 10 levels of increasing complexity.

  • [power tools whirring] [intense music]

  • So today we're making three sculptures.

  • First with hand tools only.

  • Then with power tools.

  • And then lastly with use of computers and CNC.

  • Angelfish has been kind of historical design

  • within the ice sculpture community.

  • And it's something that I think is familiar

  • of shape enough and interesting shape enough

  • to really kind of expand into.

  • So the concept of sculpting intself, will remain constant.

  • Removing the excess material around the design.

  • Refining the dimensional shape.

  • And then finishing with details.

  • This can be approached in many different ways.

  • For this project, I just simply wanted to break it

  • in terms of the lineage of technology.

  • Now this is a fish mold,

  • and this is not what we'll be making today.

  • [crunching]

  • [people laughing]

  • But first we gotta talk about the material, the ice.

  • Now we make our own ice.

  • Each machine makes two blocks, each block about 37 gallons.

  • Takes about three days, about 275 pounds.

  • And it creates a crystal clear density frozen block of ice.

  • Crystal clear blocks are made with two important processes.

  • One is one direction freezing.

  • That freezes from bottom up.

  • By freezing ice one direction,

  • it allows air bubbles to lift up to the surface.

  • And also circulation of water as it freezes.

  • So by agitating the water,

  • it releases any kind of still air bubbles

  • or impurities that may remain on the surface as it freezes.

  • First, sculpture with just hand tools.

  • It's the most traditional approach to ice carving.

  • For us, we'll start with a block of ice,

  • have a design at hand, study the design,

  • and then we will literally kind of draw the design

  • onto the ice surface usually with an ice pick

  • or a little hand saw.

  • So once the design is established onto the surface

  • of the block, then the first tool with the hand

  • would be the big hand saw.

  • It's an awesome tool, it's beautiful.

  • And it's a bitch to work with.

  • [sawing]

  • So hand saw is a beast of a saw, but the design,

  • it has to be pretty basic, pretty simple.

  • Straight lines, you can't really carve away

  • in any kind of curvature.

  • This is really meant to take away big chunks of ice

  • in a series of straight lines.

  • So once the big saw is used to take away

  • any just excess ice, the next level would be

  • to pick up the big flat chisels to take away more ice,

  • but in a slightly more nuanced manner.

  • Bigger the chisel, the more surface it can take away.

  • So as we're trying to still define the outer contour

  • of the shape, bigger chisel, the more helpful it is.

  • To work with the flat chisel, you first have to have

  • a basic knowledge of a chisel.

  • Our chisel has a beveled front and a flat back.

  • And the use of two sides will give us two different effects,

  • creating a form that's concave or convex.

  • And by having those two together,

  • we can kind of follow any kind of contours

  • that we're trying to achieve.

  • So after the big tools are gone, the next level would be

  • to pick up the smaller tools like small pistol saws

  • to hand saws

  • to smaller chisels.

  • It allows us to refine the overall shape more.

  • And then go into detailing like carving out eyes or scales.

  • As we enter the refining detailing stage,

  • we just have to be aware of just being more delicate

  • with our pressure onto the surfaces of the ice.

  • Everything's getting thinner and more refined,

  • so the tools just naturally becomes smaller.

  • So once the overall shape of the Angelfish is ready,

  • then I would pick up the V-chisel to finish the detailing.

  • So the V-chisels eats onto the surface of the ice

  • and you can really scribe onto the surface

  • and give a deep line onto the surface,

  • that can really add refraction when looked at

  • and lasts longer onto the surface of the ice.

  • With smaller chisels we can hone down into parts

  • of the design, like for this Angelfish,

  • lifting the pectoral fins perhaps,

  • or the bulge around the eyes.

  • It allows us to more easily access that area

  • without damaging other areas.

  • We often have to adjust the design we're carving

  • based on the limitation of the tools we use.

  • So for a hand tools only approach,

  • the design would have to be stylized

  • and then simplified to make the best of what we got.

  • Once the sculpture is finished with all the carving details,

  • the rest is just cleaning up for presentation.

  • Look at that, I haven't done that since I was 15.

  • Second sculpture with power tools.

  • In the most basic level of sculpting,

  • you are given the material and work within the material.

  • To step up that level,

  • then we wanna think outside the frame.

  • So we can bring in more materials and then fusing blocks

  • onto the surface to make sculpture bigger

  • than the actual block that we were first given.

  • By having the opportunity to add ice,

  • it allows us to compose a more dynamic design,

  • and allows us to play with more details.

  • So fusing block entails the use of aluminum plate,

  • a heating plate to clean up all the surfaces

  • that two ice will come together, so it's a perfect match.

  • At minimum, one of the two ice has to be very cold

  • to bite onto the ice surface.

  • [gasping]

  • You know, ice behaves very differently

  • in nuance gradations of temperature.

  • When it's really, really cold, fusing of blocks of ice

  • with a squirt of water alone doesn't work.

  • So you have to create channels

  • for the water to go into to spread.

  • And then when it's really, really warm,

  • then you have to think about the use of dry ice.

  • And it's a tricky, tricky thing.

  • So now that we have the block form ready for cutting,

  • we will pick up an electric chainsaw

  • to cut the overall shape.

  • [chainsaw whirring]

  • So while the big saws limit to straight lines,

  • electric chainsaws allows us to really work

  • various contours of various shapes.

  • And being a very powerful tool, it really allows us

  • to more efficiently tackle bigger ice

  • with out taxing ourselves too much.

  • So the use of chainsaw really gives us

  • a step up in efficiency.

  • Just one chainsaw can pretty much take over

  • everything that a big saw and a big chisel

  • would have done in a hand tool stage.

  • [power tools whirring]

  • Chainsaw itself is slightly modified to cut ice.

  • The chain that come off the shelf is designed to cut wood.

  • It's got kickback teeth on it that prevents us

  • from cutting ice as well as we would like.

  • After the chainsaw work is done,

  • the overall shape is pretty much there.

  • I would say no matter how big or small the design,

  • we would probably do about 60,

  • 70% of the sculpture with chainsaw only.

  • So now that the chainsaw part is done,

  • then we will really jump into level of detailing

  • that we can play with, and that's done with die grinders

  • and specialized bits.

  • In comparison to hand tool only stage,

  • the use of die grinders really allows us to give

  • very refined, minute detailing of the shapes

  • and effects that we wanna give to the surfaces.

  • It's a very smooth volume that we can create,

  • and even the nuance curvature of the overall shape

  • can be really achieved by playing with these shaper bits.

  • [grinding]

  • And then from there, I'll probably pick up the needle bits

  • to really start drawing the scales.

  • And even this compared to V-chisels,

  • that's again, still more of a series of straight lines.

  • We can really start giving curves of scales

  • or play with different angles of the bits

  • going into the ice surface so that it looks

  • like it's layering of scales,

  • not just sitting next to each other.

  • Proficiencies of the needle bits can really deepen

  • the explorations of the detailings you can give.

  • And I'll probably do some finishing touches

  • with bubble bits, maybe use that to create

  • a nice kind of a bulby eyeballs of the fish.

  • I can give a nice little finish.

  • Next we're gonna really explore

  • the most complex design possible,

  • thanks to the use of computers and CNC robots.

  • The CNC robot consists for this sculpture, a flat bed

  • with spindle that's attached to a CNC contraption

  • which has X, Y, and Z axes that will correspond

  • to different data that comes from the drawing

  • that's done on the computer.

  • The carving process will be done inside a freezer now,

  • because CNC machine exists inside the freezer.

  • Everything that works with the machine

  • has to be very stable, and ice must remain stable

  • and thus the freezer work.

  • And for each level, I've designated different size of bits

  • that can range from a half inch bit for the outer shape,

  • all the way down to 1/16th of a bit.

  • [drilling]

  • You know, by having the numbers,

  • the precision to our arsenal, it allows us to create

  • a form that's really daring and give kind of details

  • that's just not possible by hand.

  • [blowing]

  • I wanna design a skeletal structure,

  • and then piece it together with several blocks of ice

  • so that we can give more dynamic overall design

  • to the shape, more backgrounds, more foregrounds,

  • maybe really expand the narrative

  • of the overall compositions.

  • Maybe dimensional bubbles that could be coming out

  • from the sculpture, maybe give a little coral structure

  • in the front, really just deepen the complexity

  • of the overall sculpture.

  • We can go further into technology.

  • There are 3D carving machines out there.

  • There are arms that create various automated structures now

  • that can finish sculpture completely

  • without us touching it at all.

  • But that's a whole another realm of programming.

  • For us, the use of CNC robot is as far as we take it.

  • People often ask if it's sad for us to see the sculptures

  • that we create, that we'd spend amounts of time

  • and material to do, simply to melt away.

  • But for us, I think as a practicing artist,

  • working with ice is quite liberating.

  • So it allows us to focus on the process itself,

  • and also, we see ice sculpture as more of a formative.

  • The finishing peak is really when it leaves our studio

  • and it's out and melting.

  • Thank you Wired!

  • [intense music]

- My name is Shintaro Okamoto, I'm an ice sculptor.

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