Snow sculptures in Rockford

Not all sculptures require metals or cement and not all are meant to last forever. The Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition proves just that as all the sculptures are made entirely out of snow; just in case the name didn’t give it away. That means no interior support beams or any other structural help can be applied.

Teams of 3 have just three days to turn a 6’x6’x10′ block of snow into a work of art. Easy, right? Well drawing a concept might be easy but since support beams aren’t allowed that means that the design has to be able to support itself. In a sense, they’re not just playing with snow but also applying physics and architectural principles into these sculptures.

Every team has different approach on how to begin sculpting their masterpiece. Some dive right into it, some will first draw it out on the snow, and some even make miniature clay models to have right next to the snow blocks as a visual reference. There is no rules to the process, it’s whatever floats their boat… or in this case whatever shapes their snow.

As previously mentioned, the snow blocks are 10 feet tall so you’ll see plenty of ladders around the park as work is being done. This does not mean that the sculpture has to be 10 feet tall, some teams actually trim off a foot or two on the top because their design might not need all that height. Great, standing on an 8-foot ladder in the snow and cold temperatures, as if snow sculpting wasn’t challenging enough already.

Make a game out of it! Go see the sculptures in its early stages and see if you can guess what it will be. The colored outlines on the snow might help you a little bit, almost like a help line. Or you could do what we did and cheat, just look at the clay 3D model. Somebody make us a clay KB Digital sign, please and thank you.

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