Q: Can you tell us about the ice sculptures we have been seeing more and more of at events?

The ice sculptures at our events are actually done here, in house by Chef John Gasser. John came to Meadowlark Hills a couple years ago and has truly made a huge impact on our Food and Beverage team with his amazing abilities to organize events, teach and mentor staff, prepare delicious food, and most recently, sculpt some pretty incredible things out of  ice.

John begins each sculpture with a 300 pound 20 by 40 inch block of ice. He uses a chainsaw to start out and then ice sculpting tools such as chisels, shavers and drills for the more detailed parts of his sculptures. His “easier” sculptures, such as the recent vase and Easter Bunny, take him just a couple of hours, while his more difficult sculptures, such as two birds atop a heart that he often does for weddings, take him about four or five hours to complete. Unfortunately, it often doesn’t take much time for his sculptures to melt into something unrecognizable, especially if it is hot. He states that a sculpture placed in a setting that is room temperature will last about three hours before it really starts to lose its shape.

Thanks for the fun question and as always, keep them coming!