Forty tons of ice are in downtown Hamilton today for the sixth IceFest , "Animal Kingdom in Ice". More than 100 sculptures sponsored by area businesses line High Street. 
Each work starts life as a 40-inch high, 20-inch long, 10-inch wide block of ice(350 pounds); some of the finished works are single blocks, some are several blocks fused together by a stream of water. 
This sculpture reminded us of K.K., the "bug lady".
And this one, reminded us of Noah. New this year was an indoor Art Fest in the Butler County Government Services Center. 
One of the displays was this train set from a model train store in Milford. 
'Animal Kingdom' outside the BCGSC. 
The 'King' chair. The entrance to the children's area: "Talk to the Animals". 
The sky was overcast, the temperatures in the low to mid 30's. The weather this morning was much more amenable to the ice carvings than it was at IceFest 2006 .
Jeff Stahl, owner of Forest Park's Artic Diamond and the U.S. national champion ice carver three years in a row, was the instigator of IceFest in 2001. He thought IceFest would be a good way to breathe some life into a dreary February weekend. "The ideal temperature is about 22 to 24 degrees, but we're fine as long as the temperature doesn't climb too high into the 30's," he says. "Bright sun is the enemy because of the refraction factor. Too much sun and the ice starts to melt from the inside out."
This afternoon, the sun was out and temperatures reached almost fifty degrees...
# posted by Martha @ 1:58 PM
