Lapidary

Todays word is lapidary which is an adjective which means

1. of or pertaining to the art of cutting stones or engraving on them; or

2. characterized by an exactitude and extreme refinement that suggests gem cutting; or

3. of, pertaining to, or suggestive of inscriptions on stone monuments.

Series: The Snowman, part 5.

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The ambient outdoor temperature will greatly affect the amount of time you will have to finalize your project. Climates with temperatures that remain below freezing for an extended number of days will no doubt draw the most devout artists of this craft and, ultimately, the most intricate creations. In fact, the world renowned Claude U. Gotabekiding, moved his family from the beaches of Florida to northern Minnesota so he could indulge in his passion for creating massive sculptures out of snow. Claude creates entire snow villages, complete with snowpersons, their pets, their cars and toys and even occasional short motivational or insightful inscriptions, all sculpted with an intricate lapidary type of precision on enormous slabs of snow, which he preserves by refreezing every evening with light mists of water sprayed overhead in a complex arrangement of heated copper pipes.

Although your creation will undoubtedly appear juvenile when compared to masterpieces like his, rest assured Grasshopper that, like life, working on this type of project is what you make of it, and how much fun you are having while you do it, because no snowperson is immortal. Eventually every effort, even those created by Claude, melt back into water, perhaps to be rolled again into new creations when, next year, in a frigid blast of winter, snowflakes fall from nowhere above, gently down to the ground.

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