Ice Castles from Arctic Ice Lanterns, ice shot glasses, and large funnels

Making ice castles

The movie "Frozen" came out around the time I was experimenting with ice lanterns, and around the same time, we were in contact with some relatives who live within sight of a fine old castle in Austria.  Castles were on my mind and on the minds of the many children walking past our house.

Lit with blue and white strings of LED
lights, this castle complex was popular
with passing children.

A funnel forms the roof, supported
by ice shot glasses on a base of three
Arctic ice lanterns frozen together.

The hardest part of making this castle is getting the water to freeze to the right thickness in a funnel.  I plugged the holes with rubber stoppers and filled the funnels nearly to the top while supporting them in containers that were about the same diameter (Arctic Ice Lantern molds for the large funnels and various cans for the small ones).  Since the ice would crack if the funnel was allowed to freeze solid, I ended up taking them out (by running hot water over them) and then melting a hole in the wide end to let the water out of the core.  Several of them broke, but I ended up with enough intact ones for the towers.

It was also tricky to get all of the pillars to the right height, because the surfaces of the roofs and the towers weren't completely level.

It was a very popular display, but a lot of work.

Ice castle complex with LED lighting.

The castle complex above was from the 2014-2015 winter.  I started earlier and used the same techniques in January 2016, adding some more complicated roof designs.

A January 2016 castle complex with funnel roofs,
and also some onion-dome roofs made in balloons.

I took some more pictures showing how to make the funnel roofs.

See also this page with more pictures of roofs for towers.

A large funnel with a rubber stopper has
been filled with water and frozen until the
wall is around an inch thick.  There is a
core of liquid water which needs to be
released to prevent cracking.  To melt
a hole, I use a flat-bottomed metal
pet-food bowl filled with hot water.

The funnel has to be supported in a container.  For this large funnel, I used an Arctic Ice Lantern mold.

Spinning a bowl of hot water in the
center of the mold to melt a hole
into the liquid core.  While doing
this, I also put an inch or so of
hot water in the supporting mold
under the funnel to loosen the
ice from the form.

When the hole has been melted into the core, the liquid water can be poured out.  Be careful not to let the ice slide out of the mold before you are ready to handle it.  I like to make a nest of bubble wrap and invert the funnel over it.

A bubble-wrap nest to support the ice
as it comes out of the mold.

The ice may release easily, or it may be necessary to pour some hot water over the funnel to loosen it.  

The funnel lifts off the ice roof.

This roof went onto a cylindrical tower that had been frozen in a one-quart plastic container for mixing paint.

The roof is supported on ice "cube"
pillars on top of a cylindrical ice lantern
made in a plastic bucket for mixing paint.

A different type of roof was made in a balloon.  Longer, more pointed tops are produced by hanging the balloon from its knot while freezing.  Just supporting it in a bowl and having a knot at the top makes a less pointed top.  The hard part is making a hole into the liquid core to release the water and prevent cracking.  I held the ice in bubble wrap and melted into the center using a flat-bottomed metal bowl filled with hot water.  This is awkward to do, and there would be a couple of easier solutions.  (If hanging a balloon by the knot, you could have another balloon sitting below it and just touching the bottom.  That would keep the bottom of the hanging balloon from freezing.  Alternatively, if you use a bowl to support the balloon, you can have something in the center of the bowl to indent the bottom of the balloon and then have it sitting on snow, so that the bottom doesn't freeze solid.)

An onion-dome roof for a tower, made
in a balloon, then mounted on an
ice-lantern cylinder.

Several small towers with small funnel
roofs sit behind a larger tower made of
two Arctic Ice Lanterns, with ice shot
glasses for pillars supporting a roof
made in a large funnel.

Several towers in different sizes -- with and
without roofs -- made up the castle complex on
top of a pile of snow next to the street. 

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