She continued producing her butter sculptures for about a year and a half, then took a break from it for a few years.

Without knowing ahead of time what the results may be, she mixed up some plaster and poured it onto the butter sculpture.

The carving of the butter sculpture takes 6-8 hours per finalist.

Since she has started, the butter sculptures have gone from an oddity to something identified with Minnesota.

It was during this period that the earliest known reference to a butter sculpture is found.

Because of its success, the butter sculpture was continued each year.

Wallace started making an additional butter sculpture for the exhibit each year.

More recently, she has become an expert, perhaps the leading academic expert, on butter sculpture.

So she completed her first butter sculpture on the fair's opening day with an audience.

One of the first annual events to occur is the creation of a butter sculpture.