HOUGHTON, Mich. (WLUC) – Students at Michigan Tech had a chance to sharpen their snow sculpture skills over the weekend during a workshop.
The award-winning Wisconsin-based group Sculptora Borealis led the workshop which was held Friday through Sunday. It took them more than 15 hours and three days to make the sculpture.
“We decided to have a snow sculpture made, or a pile of snow form made, and we turned it into two octopus tentacles one holding a coffee cup and the other pouring the creamer,” Sculptora Borealis Member Josh Jakubowski said.
Jakubowski says you don’t need to have a background in sculpture-making to make something astounding.
“You don’t need to be an amazing artist to do this,” Jakubowski said. “It is just engineering, and layout and obviously, there are a few engineers here on campus. We take a 1:12 scale model so an inch on the model equals a foot on the sculpture. If you can lay that out and then plot your points on the sculpture, you can create that clay model you have.”
Student organization Blue Key Honor Society hosted the event. President Joe Dlugos says he hopes those who attended walk away with new skills to use during the winter carnival sculpture-making contest.
“I think everyone should be able to take away how easy it is to make a snow statue,” Dlugos said. “There are multiple different techniques and multiple different ways to not only use the snow with a little bit of water but use different tools to be able to make the best snow sculpture you possibly can.”
Dlugos says he hopes everyone takes away a new excitement to get out and enjoy the snow.
“The winter up here is just absolutely wonderful,” Dlugos said. “No matter what you are doing, whether it is during Winter Carnival, during a hike, skiing, or snowboarding. Whatever you are into have some fun and go outside. “
The community can view more sculptures at the annual Winter Carnival on Feb. 8 through the 11 on the Michigan Tech Campus.
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