Winners Of Ice Sculpting Competition Announced
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – An ice sculpture of Dr. Seuss' Winter Making Machine earned its makers a $2,000 prize for coming in first place at the St. Paul Winter Carnival, according to carnival planners.
The St. Paul Winter Carnival announced the winners of the ice sculpting completion Sunday evening.
Das Wintermachenmachine (mentioned above) came in first place for the multi-bock competition, in which each team is given 20 blocks of ice and 48 hours to design a sculpture. Das Wintermachenmachine's makers -- Rob Grams of Minneapolis, Terry Reis of Iowa and Tom Schiller of Hastings – won $2,000.
Second place of the multi-block competition went to Greg Schmotzer of Hastings and Chris Swarbrick of Hudson for their sculpture of a family of lions. They won $1,000.
Third went to Deneena and Paul Hughes of Eden Prairie, Shannon Erkenbrack and John Knipp. They sculpted a man in chains, spirits and an angel – an image they dedicated to a fallen team member who lost a battle to cancer. They won $500.
The sculptures were judged on originality, creativity, difficulty, completeness of design, attention to detail, use of ice, dimension and site clean-up, according to event spokesperson Molly Mulvehill Steinke.
For the individual block competition, in which contestants get two ice blocks and 5 hours to carve, a dream catcher sculpture took first in the professional division. Greg Schmotzer made it and won $750.
Second place in that competition went to Tom Schiller, who carved a swordfish and won $500. Third went to Chris Swarbrick, who carved birds of prey and won $250.
In the artisan division of the individual block competition, Chad Peterson won first place ($100) for carving a Vulcan fire vane. Second ($75) went to Eric Baker for his flying eagle and third ($50) went to Jim Zupfer for his ballet dancer sculpture.
