Here’s how the Medina Ice Festival creates amazing ice sculptures

Ice sculpture creation An ice carver makes his mark at the Medina Ice Festival (Chris Stabile/Chris Stablile)

By Zachariah Durr

CLEVELAND, Ohio (CLE WEEKEND) - During the Medina Ice Festival people walked among life-sized ice sculptures, with subjects ranging from flying eagles to revving motorcycles.

How the Medina Ice Festival creates their amazing sculptures Wonder how a block of ice turns into the glistening works of sculpture? Or how they even make that big ice? Here's how. (Chris Stabile)

Many of the sculptures are finished, but others are created on-site, transforming from a refrigerator-sized block of ice to the subject of the artists imagination in a matter of hours. You might wonder: how do you learn this kind of skill? And where do you get giant chucks of fresh ice anyway?

Ken Dietrich, the vice president of Elegant Ice Creations in Broadview Heights, explainsed how they create their ice in-house, and the kind of tools, training and philosophy it takes to make it all come together.

If you ever want to try your hand at making a frozen masterpiece of your own, Elegant Ice offers classes for different skill levels this April. You can check out details here.

VIDEO BY CHRIS STABILE

You can check out an overview of a previous years’ festival below.

Chainsaws! Blowtorches! The Medina Ice Festival is a dramatically artistic event

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Zachariah Durr

Zachariah Durr

Video Producer for CLE Weekend since 2018. LIKES: Savory snacks, line drawings, Russian animation. DISLIKES: Wet chips, clickbait, polo shirts where the logo is most of the shirt. Has lived in Texas, Florida, New York and Ohio. Not in that order.