The day of my wedding I could hardly stand at the altar. I was in sever pain from sciatic nerve darts shooting all the way down my leg. I did stand as best I could but the pain was so big and my emotions for the day were so much I was in tears. @clodaghdowning really thought I was having second thoughts but no, I had never been so sure of anything in my life. However, I could not wait till it was all over and that moment when the priest would say the immortal words 'you may kiss the bride' so I could sit my arse down. I know 'very romantic'.
I made this sculpture may years before Claodagh was even on my radar. It was for the 2006 Jelgava, Latvia ice sculpture contest and was the smaller of two sculptures which i worked on. We had one day to make a sculpture based on 'Weddings' not the most interesting of theme but it did get me warmed up for the bigger piece and allowed me to try out some ideas I was percolating in my gray matter.
Tackyless
Usually wedding ice sculptures are of a swan or a big heart with the names of the victims written on them but I wanted something a bit more classy. Thinking, this could be an idea if I was ever to get myself shackled to another person and wanted to make a sculpture for the occasion.
Ice is an amazing material. I always think I am looking at a block of solid space that inside and out can be a sculpture. The transparency gives so many possibilities and even after working with it for twenty years I am still finding new techniques and visual effects to play with.
Like a miner
My approach this time was to work inside the ice block and play with the way the outside refracted the light coming through.
Working from both sides I tunneled my way in to make the faces of the bribe and groom just as they were reaching in for that first kiss. It was a slow and delicate job to bring the forms together in negative. One mistake and the ice block would be ruined, there is no adding the ice back on. My technique was to divide the heads into simple balls making the eyes, checks, chins and noses which I could hollow out creating the positive image within the block.
These primitive forms gave the basic structure of human heads and then they were joined and detailed with some small chisels for lips, eyes and hair. You get the idea?
Easy does it
Making sure the noses didn't touch and yet lining up the lips was a painstaking game as I switched between the two faces. It was like I had never kissed before and needed some of the beautiful Latvian girls to show me how it was done. I got it to work in the end and with the crystal clear ice the heads looked like they were floating inside the block.
For the outside I kept it simple enough making a diamond like form with the different facets giving different viewing angles of the action going on within. A simple stand from the ice I had left over finished the piece.
The whole thing got me thinking. It would be a nice idea to create this a a commercial product for weddings here in Ireland but trying to create a positive likeness is difficult enough but in negative near impossible. Maybe I could carve the couples faces in Styrofoam. These would then be frozen into a block of ice and broken out afterwards leaving a hollow impression. Now of course we can 3D scan faces and machine or 3D print them out. This would make each sculpture a one off personalized sculpture. One day I may do this when I get a client willing to pay for the idea and my services.
I was very happy with the piece and as it melted the faces grew and reached each other so they could kiss. Unfortunately I have no images of this. You have to take my word for it..It didn't last long as the temperature rose over the days left of the project and the sculpture melted away pretty quickly.
For me I already had my sights set on the next sculpture, a piece I would make with my friend Alan MaGee. Tune in next time for that.
Every time I see this image I think of the work of @nonameslefttouse. I hope he doesn't mind me using his name in vain.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Loop De Loop - snow sculpture
Toy Nativity - sand sculpture
The Nightwatch - ice sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite