**Mardi Gras this year is February 5, 2008, which is an unusually early Mardi Gras**

  This design has long been a fixture in my New Orleans themed designs and was originally based on a mask design by Jeff Stahl. The colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold. The color in the photo above comes from sand added from the back of the carving. Now, however, I use glitter, which works much better for a Mardi Gras look, particularly for the gold. A medium-sized spade bit is used to drill holes in the back of the carving (about 1.5 inches deep) and the holes are cleared out and melted a bit. While the carving is laying down on its face, a layer of glitter is added and snow and slush are carefully used to fill the holes, trapping the color inside.

The design shown is slightly different from the photo, but the basics are the same. The added pieces can be cut from a slab or from extra pieces of ice. It’s very important for the welds to be very clean or they’ll affect the look of the piece.

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