Invisible Handshake (January 1999)

Team: Helaman Ferguson, Stan Wagon, Dan Schwalbe, Tamas Nemeth. Our sculpture was a Costa surface, a relatively new type of minimal surface. To convince himself the idea was sound, in August Helaman gathered some snow from the Washington Capitals hockey team practice arena and made a small version. Macalester College commissioned a version in granite from Helaman; it was installed in 2008 (see https://stanleywagon.com/invisible-handshake-by-helaman-ferguson/).

We were total novices in this medium and really had hardly any proper tools. Bob Salazar very quickly made some rasps for us, and they were crucial. Dan also pioneered the use of an ice-fishing drill, which we used at every event. Only hand tools are allowed in competitive snow sculpture.

The blocks are 12 feet high and very intimidating at the start.
Our work almost always was a minimal surface, and so it resists deformation and does not worsen after sculpting is finished.
The team.