Alcademics

Using just a cooler, a makeshift stand, and a bottle you can make cool-looking displays for home, parties, or the bar. 

If you're just getting started into ice nerditry, you'll want to check out the Index of Ice Experiments, where you can get a definition of Directional Freezing and see other fun projects. 

I previously shared how to do this on this post.

In short: inside an insulated cooler, lay a bottle atop a small riser of some sort (I used a plastic box lid) so that the bottle is raised up a few inches off the bottom. 

Fill the cooler with water (tap water is fine) so that it covers the bottle. Leave the top off the cooler and let it freeze. In my home freezer, that takes 3-4 days. Thanks to Directional Freezing, the top part of the cooler (so the front part of the bottle) will be clear, while the bottom (back of the bottle) will have all the cloudiness in it. 

You can see from this back view that the plastic riser is still stuck in the back. From the side view, you can see that thanks to directional freezing the top part of the block is super clear (so you can see the front of the bottle), while the back is cloudy. It turns out the cloudy part actually makes a nice backdrop.

Remove it from the cooler than your display is ready to go. I've done this at parties (putting some LED candles in the ice beneath the standing block) and it was a huge hit. 

Check out all the ice experiments on Alcademics at this link.