Ice Sculptures

When it comes to breathtaking scenery there is very little that can compare to a snow covered landscape. The snow dulls sounds so that everything is quieter than it normally is, nothing much ventures out in the cold so everything is still and calm. A feeling of peace and tranquillity seems to fall with the snow and settle over the region like a protective, mood tempering blanket. Adults become children again, throwing snowballs and making the occasional snow angel in a deep snowdrift. Everyone becomes an artist, expressing themselves through the creation of elaborate snowmen. You also get the real winter artists, the ones who thrive in the cold and whose creations will never be treasured in any museum simply because the medium doesn’t last long enough. Ice sculptors are being taken more and more seriously as artists, as the complexity of the art becomes better known and it gains more recognition internationally.

China and Japan both have long traditions of ice sculpting. They are 2 countries that for millennia have had a reputation for valuing art and beauty so it is no real surprise that they have been appreciating the magnificence of ice far longer than any other cultures in the world. The art is so valued in Japan that it makes the best ice chisels. Ice chisels are specially designed to work on ice and are extremely sharp. Other tools used in ice sculpting include: electric chainsaws, angle grinders, heat guns, torches and a plain old household iron. How you use these tools and how many of these tools you use will depend on the size of the sculpture and its design. The toys involved certainly are fun, though you want to be careful and not accidentally take your own leg off in all the artistic excitement.

Ice sculpting is a fairly complicated and scientific art. Not just any old piece of ice will do. The blocks of ice used are carefully chosen for their suitability. Sculpting ice must be made from pure, clean water so that it will be as transparent as possible and have the absolute minimum of air bubbles. The sculpting environment is equally important. If the temperature is not that cold then the sculptor will have to work quickly to finish it. In cases like that it is more efficient to use power tools as much as possible.

There are several ice sculpting competitions and demonstrations held all over the world where artists and amateurs are given a chance to display their skills.

Heilongjiang Province, in China, hosts the increasingly famous International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, which is held once a year in Harbin. As the festival’s popularity has increased, so has its size. It attracts more talented artists every year, who display ever more impressive techniques and create ever more spectacular pieces to display. Heilongjiang is an ideal region to host an ice and snow festival as the climate is very cold and there is no shortage of snow.

The Annual World Ice Art Championships has taken place in Fairbanks, Alaska since 1989. The event is organised and run by volunteers, which makes it rather unique in the world of ice art championships. Roughly 100 artists from around the world attend enter the competition every year. There are two main categories: single block and multi-block. Each category is then sub-divided into 2 more categories: abstract and realistic sculptures.

On the Japanese island Hokkaido; the city Sapporo is famous for its winter carnival where teams compete to create the best ice sculptures. The designs get very creative and elaborate, some even reaching the size of multi-storey buildings.

Ice hotels used to be novelties, now they are becoming popular and regular destinations for tourists in several cold countries. Sweden is believed to have started the trend, however, with its Ice Hotel in Kiruna. It began in 1989 and has been widely advertised through all media. The only things in the hotel that are not made of ice are the beds. There are 60 rooms and suites, a bar, reception area and even a chapel. It is only open between the months of November and May when the weather is at it’s coldest.

One country that you would not normally associate with ice sculpting is Ireland. It is not known as an ice and snow covered landscape. It is not defined by freezing temperatures and long winters. Yet it has some of the world’s most well respected ice sculptors who have won the International Ice Sculpture Festival, Jelgava, Latvia for two years in a row. Not bad going for a country of shamrocks and leprechauns.

Ice sculpting is more popular in the Northern Hemisphere largely because there is not a great deal of snow in Australia and Africa, even in the depths of winter. South America is very similar. The southern continents are not close enough to the Antarctic to get very cold winters and snow. They have to rely on machines to make ice blocks big enough for their artists to work with. They also have to keep the finished pieces in specially cooled rooms so that they don’t melt immediately because the warm climates simply aren’t conducive to the durability of the works of art. The people are fine appreciators of ice sculptures though, and whenever an opportunity comes around for them to see some art, they are always there in droves.

Recommended Site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_sculpture

The Indian handicrafts signing of wood

It is not by chance that the art of wood carving in Indian has been so famous for generations. Indian is proud to be a country having one of the world’s longer histories of sculpture, dating back almost 10,000 years. This is the age of the first carvings of human faces and animals found in a Dong Noi cave in Hoa Binh Province. During the Dong Son cultural period, the ancients created houses with boat-shaped curved roofs and were further embellished by art carvings of the likes of birds, animals and, unique vignettes. According to a legend, the woodcarving patriarch is Mr. Sahni, a famous carpenter in India who built a splendid temple for the Taj Mountain. Through the ups and downs of dynasties, generations of carpenters continued to create more and more artistic products with every passing day. During years under domination of Northern feudalism, carpentry in general and wood handicrafts I particular made great progress through accumulation of experience and development of traditional experience together with adopting the best of quintessence of Chinese woodcarving. From the 11 – 12^th century, churches, pagodas, and temples sprung up as religious beliefs sharply developed. Nowadays, most of the ancient wooden decorations no longer exist because of war, fire, termites, and harsh weather. For example, beautiful dragon symbols, unique images distinguishable from others, representing the Ly dynasty only survive through works made of marble or terracotta. Following the tradition of the Ly dynasty, there were additional special woodworks during the Tran dynasty of 1225 – 1400. Examples were dragons flanking flowers, musicians riding on birds, fairies riding on phoenixes, and perhaps most notably of all the decorations of the wood doors of Pho Minh pagoda in Nam Dinh Province which is the oldest woodwork are realistic, of a free style and mostly concentrated in general rather than in detail. This was also a flourishing time for wood artisans to show off their talents through communal house decorations in their village. Thanks to the skillful hands, splendid places having red lacquer trimming with gold step-by-step sprung up. Further, wooden furniture started making their appearance. However, the peak time of woodcarving was from the 16-17^th century. Statues of Buddha in famous pagodas such as Tay Phuong, But Tap and Mia earned acclaim as the most beautiful. The artwork, “Bodhisattva with a Thousand Eyes and Thousand Arms,” which is 3.7 meters in height and having 958 arms in the incomparable work of skilled hands and represents the wide knowledge of artisans. Besides building the palaces, woodcarving artisans proved their outstanding abilities though popular architecture such as village communal houses, temples, and pagodas, sanctuaries where existed thousands of art pieces such as carvings, intaglio, alto-relieves, inlaid carving, red lacquer works trimmed with gold, and red lacquer works trimmed with silver. All social classes were attracted by wooden handicrafts as most of the subjects were based on palace models with classic references and had practical utilities for daily life. Many wood handicraft villages are found throughout the country. Their products are varied, from architecture (palaces, communal houses in the village,…); furniture (beds, cupboards, tables, chairs, supports for flower pots,…); worship objects (lamp stands, incense burners, horizontal lacquered boards, pairs of wood panels on which are inscribed parallel sentences,…); wooden statues (Buddha, saints, and famous people) to toys such as dolls, chessboards, animals, birds,… In the modern era the social aspect of Indian has fundamentally changed politically, economically, and culturally. There was some conservation of cultural characteristics but with some adjustments, some from interfacing with regional countries. Udder the economic development and market expansion of the end of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st century, Indian handicrafts production in general and woodcraft in particular were and are strongly encouraged. This encouragement bodes well and is a good signal for the development of wooden handicraft throughout the whole country. More read... Indian handicrafts exporter

Lost Wax Casting Of Bronze

The traditional process used to cast bronze, developed and used 4,000 years ago, is called lost wax casting. This method results in highly detailed, quality castings and has changed very little over the centuries. The method was used by craftsmen and artists from every culture from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt up to today.

This process begins with the object that is to be cast. An artist creates a sculpture from clay or wax as these substances remain soft. These sculptures can be very intricate and finely detailed. A mold is then made of the sculpture, usually in two pieces, sometimes more when a sculpture is very large. Plaster is used on small pieces, but fiberglass is also used, especially for larger sculptures. After the molding material has been applied and it has dried thoroughly, the mold is then opened and the original sculpture is removed. Usually the original is destroyed in this process, as the molding material is very rigid. That is why the original sculpture is made of a soft material so that it can be removed from the mold.

After all of the original sculpture has been removed and the mold cleaned, a thin coating of wax is brushed onto the inside of the mold. This is done to capture every intricate detail of the mold. The mold is then put together, and wax is poured in the mold while it is being slowly rotated. After a layer of wax at least three quarters of an inch forms on the inside of the mold, the rest of the wax is dumped out. When the wax has thoroughly hardened, the mold is removed. The wax cast is then worked on by artisans to ensure that it is as perfect as possible.

The wax casts are then dipped into a mixture of plaster and sand. This is repeated many times. Each dipping has to dry thoroughly before the next. With each successive dip, the sand and plaster mixture gets more coarse. This results in a very strong shell being built up over the wax cast. After these shells have hardened, vents and 'runners' are added to allow the molten bronze to enter the shell, and for gases and excess metal to escape. The shells are then placed into a kiln and baked at very high temperatures. This heat causes the wax inside of the shell to melt away, leaving an exact image of the sculpture in the shell. This gives the process its name of 'lost wax casting'. After baking, the shell is now a mold ready for molten bronze.

Once the bronze has been poured and has cooled, the shell is then carefully chipped away, leaving a cast of the original sculpture in bronze. Any flaws are removed, the sculpture can be buffed and left its natural bronze color, or painted. This process is very labor intensive and expensive, but it results in such fine quality castings that it is still used after 4000 years.

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Renowned Sculptor Exhibits - Scottish Art Gallery Coup

Heralded by many in the art world as the next Henry Moore, Alexandros Arabatzoglou’s sculptures have been sold to private collectors all over the world, and demand for his work has been such that he has not exhibited in a gallery for nearly nine years, despite offers from some of the worlds most prestigious galleries. However, after striking up a relationship with Artery Gallery, Alexandros decided to end his gallery exile by exhibiting one of his hand carved sculptures in their St Andrews branch.

Born in Heraklion, Crete in 1970, Alexandros came from an artistic family and has therefore been involved in art since a very early age, beginning with designing and creating his own unique jewellery. It was during this period that he was chosen as “Finest Modern Greek Artist” by the BBC. Later he discovered his passion for harder materials, and started to work with bronze and different kinds of stone, clay and glass. After many years of work and experimentation forging these materials together, Alexandros invented his own style of modern sculpture – a unique ability to craft bronze and stone into a single organic form. Every piece is a one-off and can take up to four months to create. There are no moulds or copies and each comes with individual certification from the Greek government.

“The Golden Fish” sculpture was commissioned especially for Artery Gallery to be displayed at their St Andrews branch and is seen as a coup for the Scottish gallery. Jason Michaelson of Artery explains “After meeting with Alexandros in Crete last year, I was amazed at his drive, passion and enthusiasm for his work and his art. For him, creating his sculpture is like breaking down to the bare bones of his inner soul, using his hands to carve into the stone and creating an extension of himself within each individual sculpture”. He adds “Here at Artery Gallery, we are always looking to expand on the superb catalogue of talent we exhibit, and inviting Alexandros to join us, knowing of the interest he has gained, is exciting for the gallery, for St Andrews, and for world art exhibited in Scotland”.

www.arteryuk.com