Ice sculptures abound downtown Goshen

Jan. 7—GOSHEN — Howard Busfield spent Friday afternoon carving a fish sculpture out of ice at the corner of JoJo's Pretzels.

With him, he had a printed image of a fish on paper, a thick Sharpie marker, knee pads, and a collection of power tools in a little green wagon along the sidewalk.

"It's basically trial and error," he explained. "The hardest thing is picking something to do."

Every year, Busfield and the other members of the Michiana Ice Carvers Association travel to festivals around the area to share their love and talent with Michiana communities. Busfield was one of seven ice carvers from the association to attend Goshen's First Fridays Fire & Ice Festival. Together, the artists carved out dozens of sculptures, some ahead of time, some on-site for spectators.

Some artists used templates and stuck them to the ice for a perfect design, and others just freehanded their ideas. Some festival coordinators present them with inspiration, and others don't.

It's different every time.

"I like to change it up because I go to different festivals every year and I don't want to do the same thing all the time," Busfield, South Bend, said.

So far this winter season, he's been to three different festivals sharing his passion.

"I like to go with cartoon-type things," he said. "I get nervous and I want to make sure it's nice. Sometimes I get a little conservative and I don't challenge myself because I'm afraid I might goof up and it might not look nice."

Ice carving is just a hobby for Busfield, but it's one he's been doing for the better part of 15 years. In 2005, Busfield was a butcher at the University of Notre Dame when the university's executive chef hosted a class to draw kitchen staff and others into the world of ice carving.

"He was sculpting and he was getting older and it was getting tough on him," Busfield explained. "Actually, there are three of us out here that were in that class in 2005 ... that's why the chef got us involved in it because it saved money from hiring an outside carver to come in and carve."

The process is very similar to wood carving, Busfield said, and tools are or can be the same.

"When I first started, I was using router bits," he explained. "All the tools are basically all wood carving or normal tools. My chisels are nice wood carving chisels."

Although the process is similar, Busfield said he's never been much for wood carving, but there are other ice carvers with the Michiana Ice Carvers Association do both.

"Nowadays ice carving has gotten so popular that there are a few people across the country that make special bits strictly for ice, but it's not necessary," he said. "I started out with just chisels and a chainsaw."

A single block of ice, weighing in at 300 pounds, takes him two or three hours to carve. After he finished the fish sculpture, he went to the corner of West Washington Street and Main Street and worked with another carver to build a four-block ice throne sponsored by Miller Poultry for the rest of the afternoon.

Ice carvings will remain visible to the public for the next several weeks, depending on the weather conditions.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.