It’s a rare thing in the UK that we get a whole bunch of snow.  I awoke last Friday to freezing cold and blinding white – indicating the arrival of that scarce and precious day ‘Snow Day’.  Some rejoiced as they were given a day off their usual commitments, as others found it a hideous nuisance – seemingly everything packs up for a day.

I tried to be sensible;  I tried to ignore The Call Of The Snow but its wintery sculptural qualities wistfully reminded me of my favourite holiday of the year – Halloween.  Trussed up and ready for snow-fun, I burst into the garden to gauge my canvas.  I was going to make the best snow jack-o-lantern ever!

Quite soon I came across my first difficulty – my hands were very numb very quickly and without an appropriate amount of dexterity, my sculpture would never realise its full potential.  Cue moment of **absolute blinding genius**.  For those snow sculptors amongst you, please feel free to use and share this idea for prolonged snow-playing.  First, apply the glove (must be fairly thin).  Then apply a larger washing up glove.  Hey presto – warm dry hands!  The gloves tend to have raised bits on the palm side for better grip – I found this was great for getting a good smooth finish to my snow.  Bonus!

Setting back to work, my hollow pumpkin shape kept collapsing into itself.  I decided it was a bit optimistic to expect a hollow ball to be successful.  Turning to my favourite snow guru for inspiration, I wondered – ‘What would Calvin do?’.  If you’re not already a fan of the comic ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ by Bill Watterson, I suggest you check it out!  Calvin is a 6-year-old boy, who in some skits, shows an interesting take on snow creations.  Feeling inspired I created a large round ball and sculpted a squinting face with a gaping mouth.  I later stuck in a tongue for extra effect.

It didn’t seem enough so I stuck a tail on the end.  It was a fairly short tail but I did worry that it was starting to look a little too sperm-like.  Other opinions told me that it looked more like a ‘Boo’ from Super Mario so I figured I could get away with it if I wanted.  In the end, I decided it would look better with spikes down its back.

Snow creations are better with accessories so I washed off some stones and dug them into the mouth for teeth.  I broke off some dead twigs from a nearby tree and gave my critter some arms.  To give my artwork a setting, I cleared out the snow behind him so it looked like he’d slithered his way along.  This did mean that I had to put down more snow in front of him, having used all the neighbouring snow on his body mass.  If you’d like to make your own Snow Slug, I have included illustrated instructions!

After lots of hard work, I am proud to present my Greater Spiked Snow Slug: