It was a busy year on the bank with three sets of snow sculptures. Hover on the menu above or click the displayed pictures to view more!
In the first set, my goal was to make them look like they were singing. The singing team was the first to use V1 of the 'snow form'. It involved an 8 sided plywood form, 4' tall. A red Costco bucket of snow topped it off.
The second set involved smiles. My goal was to give people driving by a moment of joy in their day. It was the first team to use V2 of the snow form. V2 included an additional 3' of form, nested on top of the original 4' section. It was a bit ominous climbing up 7' to smash/pack the snow down! Some driving by I'm sure wondered if I had gone too far. But isn't that true of many innovations? And now is a good time to talk safety. Slipping is always a risk. Go slow. Always have a responsible adult part of the build.
The last dude became somewhat more realistic. Before attempting it, I experimented in our backyard (see below) with two snow columns, carving faces on both sides. You can view these 'tests' within the Picturesmenu. With the confidence of 4 trials, I attempted the front lawn sculpture shown above right. The hat was key, as were the teeth and the curve in of the corners of the mouth. The eyes, eyebrows and nose need work though! And I'm not even going to talk about ears! Having no training in sculpture, I'm finding it a fascinating exploration. In fact, I made additional progress recently after spending $4.00 on a lump of plasticine from Michaels to practice making heads. And the chance to improve is always motivating. Another cool part of this past-time is that it all melts! I'm not stuck with storing or dealing with my creations! Update, November, 2017. Please see SPECIAL FEATURES for statement about Cultural Appropriation.