Santa's supply chain (Part 2) - ice sculpture

So, where does the letter go when you send it up the chimney? I always had the idea that it atomises into a million pieces and is then carried on the winds all the way to the north pole where it rematerialises in Santas mailbox.

However, during my extensive research for this sculpture project, I discovered that Santa's Elves fly over the city the night that letters are to be sent. They travel on kestrels so they can hover just above the houses and pluck the letters from the air. Don't try to prove me wrong, it is dark out there and they are very silent.

And so I had the next scene for my exhibition to create although, I actually carved this one last from the bits and pieces of ice I had leftover. I always try and use every bit of ice I have as this stuff is expensive and I'd rather see it carved than literally go down the drain.

Again as with my previous post, I am sorry about the image quality. These are the only pictures I have. Each sculpture was made in parts for easy transport and so I never had them all together till I placed them in the Exhibition freezer. Forgetting my good camera is a regret I am still dealing with and I am sure I will be laying on a psychologist couch one day recounting it in tears.

The Making of (montage 2)

I used all the offcuts I had left from the larger sculptures to cobble together this scene. I made some simple cloud-like plates that I could fuse together above a quickly roughed out mountain landscape. You can see the water drips made everything look a bit messy but I knew this would melt away very soon and resolve the surfaces.

The bird could then just stick on top as if it was floating and then a little Elf character sitting on his back. The city was just a collection of geometric shapes that looked like houses from a distance.

It was a simple enough composition which I think drew the attention to the little letter the Elf was holding in his hand.

Returning to the scene of the crime

I took the above sculpture images just as I was running out the door. Finally, when I got to return over 40 days later I was interested to see how things stood up. I brought my wife and son to show them my work. Fintan was as snug as a bug in a rug on his mother's chest. He was in stunned silence at his Daddies amazing work or, he may have just been asleep, babies are mysterious.

All detail had eroded away from this sculpture and all edges softened. I believe it was because it was close to the door. You can also see cracks in the ice which I believe were from constant temperature changes.

The city was still intact and looked interesting. It had blended into a solid mass which looked cool with the Christmas tree lights I had underneath.

That was part 2 of this series. I'll be back next time as we follow the Santa supply chain.

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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.

Santa's supply chain (Part 1) - ice sculpture

Corona Extra - sand sculpture

Corona Extra - ice sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite

If you would like to support me

Bitcoin: bc1qp4lfg0ttz66nesgff8fd5unglg9y0l2jy53j36
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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 53.705536 lat -6.364126 long Santa's supply chain (Part 2) - ice sculpture 2015 d3scr)