Freezing things into ice lanterns

Freezing things into ice lanterns

One of the most popular ways to decorate ice lanterns is to freeze things into them.  I don't do this much, because it is a lot easier to add decorations to the outside.  If you really want to make beautiful ice lanterns with frozen flowers or figures inside, Wintercraft's Jen Hedberg is working on a book that will share her techniques.  Here's one of her stunning creations.

A candlelit ice globe with a bouquet inside it, made by
Jen Hedberg from Wintercraft and displayed in March
2015 at the Middlemoon Creekwalk in Minneapolis.

My attempt to make an ice globe with a figure inside didn't turn out quite so well....

A dinosaur in an ice globe -- just
guessing how to freeze it in place.

Ice globe explosion -- the end of the dinosaurs, I guess.

Ice can be tricky.  There's a lot of expansion as it freezes, and it's very sensitive to temperature shock if it comes in contact with water that is much warmer than the temperature of the ice.  (For instance, wetting a frozen ice lantern that has cooled to much below the freezing point -- even if it is done with very cold water -- is likely to crack it.)  I'm looking forward to learning the physics of getting things frozen into ice globes, but I'm not there yet.

Somewhat more successful were a couple of ice lanterns with foliage and flower petals frozen into the rims.  I used the Arctic Ice Lantern molds and picked marigold and cornflower blooms, and asparagus foliage, just after the first frost in late 2014.

The last flowers of 2014, still with colorful petals.

Freezing flowers and foliage into the
first inch or so of the Arctic Ice Lantern
molds.  The plant material tends to float, so
I let it freeze hard before adding more water.

Keeping the added material from floating to the top requires doing something to hold it in place.  I've seen hot-melt glue mentioned, and that's what I tried for fastening the dinosaur in place.  Freezing just a rim of ice with stuff in it did work for the Arctic Ice Lantern, but it wasn't a method that I would bother with again.  

Flower petals and asparagus foliage
frozen into the rim of an Arctic Ice Lantern,
with a couple of petals that escaped from the
pre-frozen base and migrated up through the
water.  The added water, incidentally, has to
be very cold, or it will soften the ice around
the rim and let it break loose and float up.

I think this is a technique for ice lanterns that will be viewed close up, rather than placed along a street or sidewalk.

Night view of an ice lantern with a
rim decorated in foliage and flowers.

If you're using just a couple of ice lanterns as centerpieces on a table, freezing something inside is probably something you'd want to learn how to do.  If I figure it out some time, I'll post an update.  Otherwise, watch Wintercraft's website for an announcement of Jen Hedberg's book on making ice lanterns.

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