London Ice Sculpting Festival 2012

Hello again everyone!
Is ice sculpting a craft? I'm sure that many of you will say but in a way something is created (i.e. a statue or very interesting ice cubes) so maybe it's more like upcycling ;)

Yesterday was the annual London Ice Sculpting Festival. Not something I would normally go fr but I am trying to let London convince me that it really is as cool as I am constantly told it is (yes, after 6 years I need it to show me something great!), so I decided to spend the whole of Saturday on the go.

The festival was in Canary Wharf which isnt really an area I get to very often, so I tried to do more than just the one thing. But more about that later. Let's sculpt!

There were 6 or 7 entries. They started on Friday but as I had to work, I could only go on Saturday. The progress was really amazing already!

Not sure if this is a dancer or a skater lifting his partner, but it sure looks cool!

This is the French entry. The only one I happened to take the flag in the picture I think.

This was my favourite, I just loved the mask! Well, my favourite until...

...until I saw this one! This was the UK entry. I love it! I dont actually know who won, and it's not even online anywhere, but it was really cool (pun intended!) to see these guys attack a block of ice with a chainsaw.

It gathered a lot of interest surely! There was also a food market with lovely winter food (including tartiflette!) but I had other plans already so I skipped that.

In another area, there was a DIY ice sculpting event going on. I registered at the inside venue (after some bozo pushed his way to the front at the outside venue and I just let him have it. It was nice and toasty inside and the organisation was much better), and this was my starting point. We had to sculpt a wolf's head like the one in the picture.

Sadly we were not allowed to wield a chainsaw in the shopping mall (pout!) but we got to it with a chisel. I was in luck as I was on my own I got to have my very own block of ice :) Dont worry about my posture here, I tried to demostrate me happily chiselling away but I was wearing a massive scarf so somehow ended up looking like the hunchback of notre dame (on ice? hihi) with the all the hair covering it. Oh well, I had fun!

The result! We only got 15 mins to chisel but the result isnt bad I must say! My very first attempt :) It's really difficult!

After I had fnished sculpting I took a walk to my next venue. But on that tomorrow! I have to recover from an epic boiler fail in the middle of having my shower and need to prepare for some hassle in getting it fixed tomorrow... Wish me luck and please dont forget to vote in the meantime!