“The happiest part is when the time is up because while the time is running and everything is going wrong, it scares you to death,” senior Alyson Smith said while carving ice at UA’s Ice Fest competition, where she ended up winning third place and $100 worth of carving tools.

This was her first year participating in the annual competition, in which she was given three hours to create an ice sculpture.

Smith chose to sculpt a Jackalope because she liked that there were body parts from different animals, such as a jackrabbit and antelope.

While she was only given a limited time to complete her project, much planning and preparation went into the execution of her design

She started planning over a year ago, and initially began with a picture from Google images. From there she had to figure out what lines she wanted to see in it.

Smith then would practice her designs in glycerine soap or draw it in connect sand.

“Once you sculpt it a million times over, you’ll figure it out at some point,” she said.

A challenge Smith faced in the competition was cutting the ice too thin: “Usually I have more ice to work with, but it’s pretty close to what I wanted.”

Smith is a member of the Culinary Artist Carving club and the Hospitality club. The culinary club was started by Hospitality Management instructor Chef Richard Alford, which was one of the main reasons she joined the club.

“I’ve learned a lot since and I wanted to join it because it was a career thing, but it’s turned into a lot more. You get friends and really good networking,” Smith said.

Smith said carving has given her a skill that not many people have.

“It’s just a really good way for students to collaborate. If you’re a career-focused individual, you learn a lot about yourself and about other people,” Smith said.

She is working toward a degree in organization supervision.