Fire and Ice

Last night I attended Seacompression, the Seattle area Burning Man get-together. The theme was, "Fire and Ice" and the idea was that we would have fire sculptures such as the Flaming Zen Garden and other pieces and ice sculptures.

Due to some permitting issue, we were allowed to have fire performers inside the venue, but not candles. We were allowed to have one ceremonial candle and that was it. Another permit would be required to have the fire sculptures outside and that idea was dropped.

On the ice side, we had some wonderful sculptures by Peter Toms. He does an ice sculpure every year for the Fremont Art Council's Winterfeast and the sculptures are always impressive. He takes giant 3-4' blocks of ice and suspends them with giant ice tongs or has them slowly melt down a giant sword. They are always impressive.

But on the fire side, we were coming up very short.

Until I had an idea.

The fire permit said that candles were not permitted, but allowed chafing dishes. Chafing dishes are fueled with gelled alcohol. So I bought blocks of ice, drilled them out with a hole saw, I placed glass votive holder in the middle filled with gelled alcohol and different salts for color.

The end result was a fantastic sculpture. It slowly melted down and looked a lot like a candle, but it was obviously made of ice.

I do not have any photos at the moment, but I thought I might float this idea out there in case any of you run into a similar obstacle or might want to try an interesting centerpiece in your holiday plans.