Melting ice on Canary Wharf - ice sculpture

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I am returning to document my sand and ice sculptures after a few posts about other things. As they say, 'A change is as good as a break'. These posts take me a day or two to put together, from organising photos to pondering what I'll write about to then battling the keyboard to try and make some sort of readable presentation. It takes a lot of energy for me with all else going on in my life. Hence the reason I don't post as often as I would like.

Where were we?

I am now in 2014 having so far created posts for all my work from 1996 to 2013. I find it a pity that I have to kick 2014 off with this project but this is the luck of the draw and It needs writing about even though my images are not the best and it may not have been the most interesting of projects.

London baby!

It took place over a weekend in early January. Niall Magee asked if I wanted to team up on a little competition where we needed to create three separate sculptures, 1 solo and then two as a team. It happened in Canary Wharf, London. and the weather was great, too great!

Working with ice is best done in minus temperatures for obvious reasons, but you just can't rely on the weather these days due to climate change.

It was a small project with a participation fee to cover costs. I figured what the hell, it could be fun and I would get to check out this part of London and maybe meet some new people to annoy with my friendship.



The NSA

For my solo piece made from one block of ice, I had high aspirations to create a spider in a web. The Web represented the internet, the spider the NSA (Naughty spying Asshats) In 2013 Edward Snowden had proved what all the tinfoil hat wearers had been saying. That the US government was spying on everyone and he exposed the tools and techniques they were using.

This was very present in my mind and I was wondering how it's exposure would change the world. Spoiler alert 'It hasn't!' I am sure they are still grabbing all our data and hopefully the asshats are reading this post now. Hi guys, how about an upvote for my data?



The Warm temperatures made the sculpture very difficult for me and It was melting as fast as I could carve. You may be able to make out something in the image but I will forgive you if you don't.



Ship in a bottle

For our second piece, which was a double from one small block of ice we thought to make a ship in a bottle. Niall would make the bottle and I would try to make a ship inside of it from the ice cut away from around the neck.

Again with the plus temperatures, it was very difficult. Niall did a nice job of the bottle by creating two separate halves which he hollowed out. These we then reassembled around the ship. My ship looked OK for a few minutes before one of the masts fell over and we could not get back in to fix it.

I am really impressed by what the real ship in bottle builders can do, especially when you think that everything has to be done through the mouth of the bottle. Even with our cheating half bottle, we couldn't get it right and I have no photos to prove it.



She's a model and she's looking bad

Our final piece was made from much larger blocks of ice. I think the organisers had set a theme of Fashion and so we did something with a model (On the left side and her hair transforming into a spiral of photographic film in an arch-like structure.

One of the side effects of working in plus temperatures and in direct sunlight is that the UV light shatters the structure and creates bubbles and fissures all the way through. This takes away all clarity from the sculpture and can make a lacklustre sculpture like ours look even more lacklustre.

It wasn't a great piece but we had fun and had some good times in the evening with the other carvers. There were many carvers there that I had not met before. Most were purely commercial carvers, Highly skilled but they never really worked in the same circles on the more artistic projects around Europe and the world.

So hat was that. my next sculpture should be a bit more interesting, I hope. Please stick with me.





Ps

Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.

Iglu Dorf Music - snow sculpture

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Velocity - short film

Graffiti Nativity - Sand sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite

If you would like to support me

Bitcoin: bc1qp4lfg0ttz66nesgff8fd5unglg9y0l2jy53j36
Ethereum: 0x6abaE039b9BDFB67495A0588cb90F9EAF5f7556c
Eos: ammonitearts



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I made out the spider web alright but not sure what was in it 😅

Stuff is happening but slightly slower than demographic shift i.e. infinitely slower than any of us would like but probably slightly more sustainably than everything happening all at once 😵

The ship in a bottle looks alright despite your misgivings, and the people that make the ships in bottles must have some pretty next level dexterity.

Sounds like this particular adventure was a bit of a challenge with the unfriendly temperatures but long as you got some fun and contacts out of it then all is still good right 😜

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I also admire those works of art inside a bottle. One must have enormous patience to work from such a tiny place.
Your ice bottle looked lovely

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Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1204.

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Really interesting and I always enjoy your writing, your way of telling a story. You interject these witty salient comments that make me laugh and grin, (much needed these days), such as the below:

"maybe meet some new people to annoy with my friendship."
"Hi guys, how about an upvote for my data?"

I did not know this:

"One of the side effects of working in plus temperatures and in direct sunlight is that the UV light shatters the structure and creates bubbles and fissures all the way through."

Learning new things is the spice of life for me, so this is what I consider a little nugget of info (think gold nugget) as to the essence and nature of ice under those conditions. Thanks for that.

I see what you mean about your photos. Even so, I can see the spider, the web and get a feeling of it, same as with the model. I really like the ship in a bottle and I can imagine the frustration at having that happen to the mast. It's too bad the conditions were disadvantageous. Despite that, you've done very well and I've enjoyed seeing this post. Looking forward to the next one!

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Thank you for your nice comments about my writing. Since joining Steem and Hive I realised that it was something I really enjoy when I can get a moment to myself, (Sorry for my delayed replies). it is a whole other creative outlet for me to explore.

Ice is a strange material and the different ways it cuts and acts at different temperatures has me still learning every day. I would be no expert but I know that the UV light is a big no no when to temperature rises. I have had several sculptures turn to mush in this way.
!ENGAGE20

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(Edited)

You're welcome. No worries on delayed responses, we all have real life to deal with too and things are very far from easy now.

Wow, with regard to what you say about ice. I've never done it, unless you count the weird snow and ice "sculptures" when I was growing up. I've also never had the chance to talk to someone who carves ice and snow, plus those incredible sand sculptures, so it's a great learning opportunity. Ice makes me think of glass, due to the translucent and transparent qualities. I like the idea of "temporary" very much as well, and the challenge you have in working with ice like this.

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Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

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