Even though special care is taken to ensure that each sculpture makes it to its destination in one piece, what happens when bad luck strikes? Ice is so fragile that accidents will happen, but despite what many think, it’s often possible to salvage a sculpture and get it looking brand new again.
What happens when an ice sculpture breaks?
Ok, so if you drop your masterpiece down a flight of stairs, chances are it will smash to smithereens. Unfortunately, this means going back to square one. However, minor fractures and clean breaks can often be fixed without a trace. If you have two pieces of ice that are both cold enough, you can hold them together and drop water through the join using a pipette until it freezes. You need to make sure that the surfaces are polished for a good, clean join as flat surfaces are the most reliable.
Repair an ice sculpture with Carbon Dioxide
If the two pieces of ice aren’t cold enough, they can still be repaired with a squirt of CO2 gas which is a whopping -40 degrees warm. The bond created by carbon dioxide isn’t quite as strong as a repair with water, but it’s the choice of plumbers who need to cut pipes and it’s handy to have a can lying around the studio for all the small fixes.
Of course fractured ice can be beautiful too.