Visitors to Oregon’s downtown commercial district can thank Mother Nature and a very artistic Oregon businessman for the 7-foot snow statue of Cinderella that now graces one corner outside the Conover Square Mall.

While most Ogle County residents were figuring out how to get rid of the nearly 12 inches of snow that fell across the region Nov. 29, sculptor Fran Volz of Rockford was getting inspired.

“The snow came down and there was lots of it. I checked out the weather forecast and it was going to be cold,” said Volz, owner and operator of Fran Volz Studios in Conover Square, 203 N. Third St. “She’s here because there was snow.”

Volz is a seasoned, professional sculptor when it comes to creating images in several mediums, including snow and his specialty – bronze.

He started sculpting snow in his front yard in Arlington Heights in the 1980s.

“I liked the interaction with the neighbors and people who would stop by. Then someone told me about the competition at Sinnissippi Park in Rockford,” he said.

Volz went on to compete in the Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition in Rockford, winning that competition in 2015 and 2017 and ran a studio in Rochelle before moving it into Conover Square.

Oregon’s Cinderella took three days to complete, Volz said, starting with one of the piles of snow left after Conover’s north parking lot was plowed.

“There was a pile of snow and I started with that,” he said.

After constructing the base, Volz started collecting white, clean snow from the surrounding area by using a shovel to scoop it up into a wheelbarrow and moving it to the base. He said snow scraped from pavement can include oils and debris that affect the color and composure of the sculpture.

“There was plenty of snow around to find the pure, white variety,” he said.

He then began scraping and forming the snow into Cinderella using photos of the iconic Disney character.

“Over the years I have honed my skills,” Volz said. “I started with four to five photos for reference, but that was a 2-dimensional image so I had to create three dimensions.”

To do that, Volz used a doll for scale. “I had a doll for the general figure and I used a ruler to measure the dimensions – for example, 1 inch for 1 foot," he said.

After the sculpting was complete, he sprayed a mixture of acrylic paint and water to give Cinderella her trademark blue dress and blonde hair.

Volz is also credited with suggesting the idea for the U.S. Straw Sculpting Contest that started in Rochelle and is currently held in Mt. Morris. He also created the bronze statue at the Veterans War Memorial at Lawnridge Cemetery in Rochelle.

To learn more about Volz and his studio, visit franvolzstudios.com.