For those who read my last post, Firstly, thank you and secondly, you will know that I arrived late to this job and had to work fast to get back on schedule. The Iglu Dorf Hotel in Davos was to open on Christmas day and I had eight days instead of the usual 13 to do all my work.
Having finished the Bar and restaurants in break back speed. I had six-bedrooms to make in six days. So I tried to do as much as I could with the chainsaw and bigger chisels.
Room 1 - Shipwreck
Having attacked this room for a few hours with my saw and shovel I had it roughed out before lunch. The concept was simple enough and needs no explanation but I'll give one anyway, for my visually impaired readers.
A disintegrating shipwreck lies on the ocean floor. It was the front or, as the sea people call it the bow of a galleon ship complete with a figurehead sculpture. I was emerging from some seaweed and had some fish swimming around. I also included a treasure chest with some ice coins because Arrrrr me hearties!
Angular fish
Going a bit deeper now, maybe not in concept but in subject matter, I made this Angular fish with a little Nemo doing the Marty Feldmen. It was simple enough and finished with an ice globe where the bait hung. This would have a little light inside to add to the atmosphere of the room.
Hippy Jellyfish
Each year I get requests from the technical team to make a room with some sort of reference to cannabis. In this room, I made starfish which had a passing resemblance to wacky tobacco and some free lovin' Jellyfish.....man.
Surfer dude
This looked better in my head than in the reality I achieved. I just couldn't get the wave breaking to look nice in the time I had. There was a lot of digging to put the surfer inside the wave and still it didn't look deep enough.
It was ok, I suppose as it got the message across. Maybe in the final lighting, it looked better.
Gone fishing.
This was one of my simpler rooms but also my favourite. I wanted to give a fishes eye view of a father and son fishing. I hope you can understand it. Sometimes it is nice to do something more simple to give the brain and eyes a rest.
As I learn more about working in an igloo and carving from the inside of a sculpture out. I start to realise that I don't always need to reform the entire surface of the walls. Sometimes it is nice to keep it simple, stupid. Graphic rather than sculptural.
Something Fishy
My last day on the mountain and I had just a few hours to turn the last room into something. I grabbed my Die Grinder (like a Dremel, only bigger) and set about creating a shole of fish that spanned the whole 360 of wall area. I worked until the last minute and then ran out the door and off to the airport.
In this room, I also made some sort of rocky platform coming out of the wall. Here Smits would add an ice sculpture of a seal which he would create after opening. He usually stays around to finish up and do some public demonstrations of carving for a week or so. He makes little elements that can be added here and there to give the hotel extra bling.
The St.Nick of time
I had made up for the time I had lost at the start due to the death of Clodagh's mother and her funeral. There were long days of me staying late, alone in the igloos. I usually don't like doing this because if I had an accident there would be nobody to find me till the next morning. I try to be as safe as I can and not use any chainsaw while I am alone but you never know what could happen. This year I had to risk it and hope for the best. Luckily I was fine and the unseasonable good weather meant I had an easy walk up the mountain, back to my well-earned bed.
I was happy with the achievement but also, oh so happy to be going home for the first Christmas with my own little family.
Foot note
I had to say goodbye to some old friends on the mountain. I had had these snow boots since the first winter project I did in 1996. They were warm and comfortable, even though they were stuck together with duct tape. Due to the warm weather water started to seep in and I had to add plastic bags as socks to keep my toey toes dry.
They had reached the end of their work life and so I retired them and set them free in the Alps. If you are walking alone in these mountains and hear footsteps through the snow behind you It could very be my old companions.
Farewell Snow Booties.
(They actually went into a skip)
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 Under The Sea - snow sculpture (part 1)
Taj Mahal - ice sculpture
Santa's supply chain (Part 7) - ice sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
If you would like to support me
Bitcoin: bc1qp4lfg0ttz66nesgff8fd5unglg9y0l2jy53j36
Ethereum: 0x6abaE039b9BDFB67495A0588cb90F9EAF5f7556c
Eos: ammonitearts
I am also starting to create NFTs of my sculptures and welcome you to my gallery where you can own a bit of ephemeral sculpture history.
[//]:# (!pinmapple 46.836388 lat 9.805047 long Iglu-Dorf Under The Sea - snow sculpture (part 2) 2015 d3scr)