Ice is painted and additional coats have been misted on–which means it’s time for circles and lines! We had a great turnout of helpers. We appreciate everyone who came out!
To start the circles, we have this handy-dandy cutter that makes an imprint in the ice. These were great guidelines on where to lay the circles later.
The ice shavings were then swept away.
After all eight circles were prepped, the tee lines went down. Did you know that they’re just yarn? We stretched a long string of yarn across all four sheets.
(Need a line refresher? Here you go!)
(Someone asked if lines in pro arenas are done with yarn. Curling.ca lists yarn as a supply for lines. Smithsonian just says, “They paint over hockey lines, draw throwing circles, logos and other curling-specific markings.” Folks on Reddit said they use yarn as well. I did see tape mentioned in one page summary. So…I’m not sure. Anyone know?)
When the lines looked straight, the lines were set in place with misted water. The bits of yarn that go over the side rails is trimmed off.
A similar (but smaller scale) technique is used to put down the boxes for the stones.
Then the circles go down. The cut templates from earlier help the circle layers know where to line up the fabric.
Each circle gets a coat of water to adhere it to the ice. The entire thing is rolled repeatedly to get out any wrinkles.
When circles on both ends of the sheet are perfect, the rest of the lines go down.
Same method as the tee line.
Now more coats of water have been misted over the ice–two or three a day. After about a week, we’ll do another major flood, then shave the ice and finally pebbling. It’s a long process!