Ice, Ice Baby!

There wasn’t an ugly duckling in sight when Simon Fry tried ice sculpting.

The classroom temperature might be -8°C but the welcome is warm at Cwmbran’s The Ice Academy where husband and wife team Laura and Gareth Giles offer lessons in a most engrossing pastime.

You may have seen their ice creations on two BBC programmes – a Premier League trophy on Football Focus within its Boxing Day 2013 round-up and instruments on the One Show used to play In the Bleak Midwinter in December 2014. The couple also supplied around 100 parties, weddings and hen dos with all manner of centrepieces last year.

The plan is to turn a 70-litre block of ice into a swan, a metamorphosis little short of fairytale farfetchedness, given my inability to even draw one. Over the course of the next four hours, however, I am to surprise – and impress – myself enormously.

After very rough dimensions are marked onto the block, I use a chainsaw – for the first time – to cut off some major lumps. This is as exciting as it sounds!

I then scribe an outline and begin whittling away with an ice pick and chisels. The ice proves to be surprisingly soft; a hammer is not necessary, rather the pushing of the blade across the block’s surface sees ice fly off easily.

The trick will be to stop before too much is removed, and despite this being a very absorbing and engaging activity, Laura ensures I don’t get carried away.

Anyone who liked woodwork at school will find this similarly enjoyable, and there’s a sense of wonder as, after two hours or so, the block progresses from Sphinx through Scottie dog toward something beginning to resemble a swan.

Indeed, the process is so satisfying I am keen to resume before the break for tea and biscuits is over. There is certainly no need to warm-up, the clothes and gloves supplied ensure I barely notice the subzero surroundings, although the ice shavings bring to mind wintertime snow fun.

Back at the block I begin to fashion the bird’s roundness, making its wings more prominent, before the more demanding stage of shaping a neck and head.

As ice is removed the remaining block becomes lighter, so Laura holds onto it lest my paring sends it sliding a few centimetres. 

It is amazing how a single push of the chisel can create a feature making the ice look much more swan-like; the emergence of its bill adding greatly to anatomical correctness worthy almost of an Attenborough documentary.

The last 30 minutes sees the most intricate work. As the neck becomes thinner I harbour a slight fear I will either render it unduly scrawny or, worse still, take off the head with a reckless stroke.

By now, however, my chisel control is pleasingly deft and Laura’s instructions can be followed intuitively and accurately.

Her regular praise is rewarding and I am honoured to be trusted with an electric drill to create the all-important eyes.

I am little short of astounded at the end result, a swan that indubitably looks like a swan!

I have taken to this ice-sculpting lark like a duck to water…

www.theiceacademy.co.uk