The courtyard of a house or cottage in winter looks much more boring than in summer - frozen nature and snowdrifts on both sides of the cleared paths ... A monotonous picture. But with the approach winter holidays when more and more thoughts about New Year's fairy tale, so I want to see something unusual around, special in a winter way!
You can create a winter fairy tale in your own yard with your own hands, and this will be especially useful if there are children in the house. Of course, the traditional Christmas tree in the yard will be beautifully decorated and trimmed, and ice and snow sculptures will help make the snow-covered garden truly wonderful.
ice sculptures
It is generally accepted that only a professional can create an ice sculpture. This is not entirely true, because sometimes you just have to try - and everything will work out! Of course, such work will take time, tools available in almost every household and, of course, ice.
However, before starting the search for a suitable ice block, think about the sketch future sculpture. Ideas for ice images can be generated independently, taken from the Internet, sculpted from plasticine, drawn, etc. If you are not looking for difficult ways - just try to reproduce your baby's favorite toy from ice.
Concerning source material , freezing tap water is not worth it: the ice will turn cloudy. A great option is water from your own well or an ice bar carved into the nearest frozen body of water with a chainsaw. But the ideal material for winter creativity will be artificial ice, which is produced at cold storage facilities. The product from it will not melt even during small thaws.
If you plan to create a large enough sculpture or an entire composition, you will most likely have to combine several ice bars into a single whole at the very place where the sculpture will be created. Decide on the location of the future creation and start laying the ice bars. Fill each layer with water and immediately lay the next row of elements. As a result, you will get a monolith, from which all that remains is to cut off everything superfluous. By the way, this is how fortresses are built from ice “bricks”.
To make ice sculptures, you will need some tools of those intended for construction and for working with wood. If you have to break off large enough pieces of ice from the monolith, you can use a chainsaw or a regular saw. For finer work, you can use scrapers - straight and angled. A straight scraper is useful for chipping off pieces of ice from a monolith, and an angled one will be convenient to shape the ice sculpture and make grooves. You may also need a chisel, chisel, or other tool of your choice. Ice is a rather malleable material, it will not be difficult to work with it, and you will certainly acquire the necessary skill with experience.
After the work is completed, pour water on all sides of the statue and wrap it tightly with polyethylene. After a while, it can be removed.
Worth a few words about coloring ice sculptures from ice. If you wish, you can try to make a blank for a product from tinted water, but getting the desired effect in this case is not easy - it's a trial and error method. Watering the sculpture with tinted water is also not effective - the lower part of the sculpture will be painted more intensely than the top. It is better to apply tinted water with a brush in layers, achieving the desired shade - time consuming, but effective. So you can paint not the whole sculpture, but only its individual elements. But not painted, but illuminated sculptures look especially impressive, so if possible, use this technique.
Alternative to sculpting
Feeling like a real sculptor is certainly great, but for this activity you need to allocate time, which is usually not enough before the holiday. But for those whose desire to decorate the garden with ice sculptures is supported by some financial opportunities, there is an alternative: freezing ice in special forms.
Ice sculpture molds are sold in specialized supermarkets and can also be purchased online. Not too much sophisticated technology allows you to create exquisite ice decorations for your garden. And not only them!
In a similar way, but in less cumbersome forms, iceware can be made: fruit vases, champagne buckets, wine glasses. Such products can be used both for their intended purpose - for serving a New Year's banquet at outdoors, - and as garden ornaments. Just imagine: an ice vase with a spruce branch, a couple of cones and a rowan brush on a table in the gazebo - well, isn't it charming?
Non-banal snowmen
If you don’t have time to make ice sculptures, and you don’t have the funds for ice sculpture molds, this is not a reason to leave the yard mundane and boring. Even the most ordinary snowman, one of the symbols of Russian winter fun, can decorate your yard. However, a lot can be molded from snow - there would be a desire to create. Moreover, from snow, as well as from ice, you can create real sculptural masterpieces! True, this is somewhat more difficult than making an ordinary snowman.
Snow for sculptures is prepared in a special way: it is pressed until a dense substance is obtained in a container of a suitable shape. This will be the basis for the sculpture. A wooden or wire frame can be mounted in it, which will further give the product stability. Snow for garden decorations must be the cleanest, otherwise the result may not be as presentable as we would like.
To create a sculpture, you will need all the same scrapers, spatulas, chisels. Work with pliable snow will go faster than with ice. To correct not the most successful movements of the "sculptor's cutter", as well as to create small details, "snow dough" is used: the container is half filled with water, then snow is poured into it. The resulting mass should adhere well to the main part of the sculpture. The finished product must be poured with water.
Snow figurines are good because they can be painted to your taste. There are no special restrictions in the choice of colors and shades: you want vivid images– paint the sculptures in rich colors. To ensure that the paint lays evenly on enough large surface you can use a spray bottle. Try to use food coloring, which will not damage the plants in the future.
Snow sculptures are less durable than ice sculptures, but they are worth the effort. Sculptures made of ice and snow placed in different corners garden, will create a real winter fairy tale in it. Walking in such a garden will be no less interesting than in summer. Its special, unique charm will make your New Year and Christmas holidays even more pleasant and romantic.
Ice is an amazing material.
You can build a real castle from it, make a slide for children, carve sculptures, create a decorative composition for decoration holiday table, make a bar counter and even dishes - for example, cocktail glasses. Unusually decorate the yard, suburban area or the interior, professionals from the studios specializing in ice construction can help you.
But during the New Year holidays, it is much more interesting to become a creator yourself - and to attract family members: you are guaranteed an unforgettable family leisure.
Ice sculptures: professionals work
In Russia, the construction of snow towns and ice slides have long been folk winter fun. And the tradition of erecting ice sculptures dates back to the reign of Empress Anna
Ioannovna. In 1740, for the clownish wedding of Prince Golitsyn, she ordered the construction of the Ice House on the Neva - between the Admiralty and the Winter Palace. The house, 17 meters long, 5 meters wide and about 6 meters high, was built from ice blocks held together by water. Ice cannons were displayed in front of it, ice dolphins flaunted at the gate, ice pyramids towered on both sides of the entrance. Everything inside the house was made of ice - furniture, utensils, a fireplace, and even a bathhouse. The authors of the unique project are best architects that time. Since then, in the literal sense of the word, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, technology has stepped far ahead, and ice cases
masters have learned how to create real masterpieces - and demonstrate them at any time of the year, not only in winter. On New Year and Christmas holidays, you can admire their work on the central streets and squares of the city, at numerous competitions and festivals of ice sculptures that take place in parks - Luzhniki, Sokolniki, Kuzminki, Krasnaya Presnya. There is even a year-round Ice Museum in Moscow.
What can be seen at ice sculpture festivals and competitions:
- ice palaces, slides and labyrinths;
- the most diverse and fantasy sculptures - Santa Claus, the Snow Maiden and other fairy-tale characters, animals and birds, cartoon characters, ice chess and much more - these are real art objects under open sky created by talented sculptors.
But the activities of professional studios for the production of ice compositions are not limited to participation in festivals. For private clients they offer:
- installation of ice figures in suburban areas;
- production of interior ice figures, which can be both decorative and functional - used as original vases, candlesticks, seafood dishes, berries, fruits, ice cream, glasses and vessels for drinks;
- construction of ice bar counters equipped with everything necessary for making cocktails;
- unusual gift wrapping - for example, rings placed inside an ice bar look very impressive;
- in addition, ice logos and outdoor advertising are in high demand.
Prices depend on the number of ice blocks used and the complexity of manufacturing. For example, for a figure measuring 50 by 50 by 25 cm, you will need 0.5 blocks, it will cost from 2,000 to 5,000 rubles; for a figure with dimensions of 195 * 100 * 25 cm, 3-5 blocks are needed, the price is from 15,000 to 30,000 rubles, for a figure with dimensions of 500 x 300 x 25 cm, 20 blocks are needed, the price is from 100,000 to 300,000 rubles.
Material for making ice sculptures
The figures are made from ice blocks. The standard size of one is 100 x 50 x 25 cm, weight is about 120 kg. To create large sculptures, several blocks are needed, which are placed on top of each other and poured with water - in order for the seams to “stick together” and a monolithic form is obtained. Blocks can be purchased from companies that specialize in ice carving at any time of the year. In winter, the cost of one is from 1,500 rubles. without delivery.
What is an ice block made of?
For its manufacture, two types of ice can be used - natural or artificial. 
Natural, or natural, is river or lake ice. River water is not held in high esteem by professionals: it is not as transparent as in a lake, where, thanks to springs, it acquires a beautiful bluish or greenish tint. Artificial is ice from an icemaker. It is he who is preferred by masters, since he turns out to be perfectly transparent, like a crystal. The fact is that in the ice maker, water is cleaned of impurities and does not stagnate.
In winter, sculptures, if the temperature outside is below zero, are created at the place of their installation, in warm weather - in cold rooms at a temperature of -10°C. Do not be afraid that they will melt quickly: even at a temperature of + 25 ° C, they will stand for at least 4 hours. 
Sculptures can be not only transparent or matte, but also colored - companies have special technologies for painting ice.
As a rule, blocks are sawn in half and the inner surface is painted or inscriptions, patterns, numbers are applied to it.
Then the blocks are connected by pouring water. Structures made of ice with illumination look very beautiful - any shade can be achieved with light.
The process of making an ice sculpture with your own hands
Before starting work, the master draws a sketch. Then he puts ice blocks on top of each other, “glues” the joints with water, the number of blocks depends on the size of the product.
For cutting, he uses saws, chisels and cutters, similar to those used for woodworking. It is very important that the tools are well sharpened.
To create a sculpture measuring 2 * 2 x 2 m, an experienced carver will need an average of 2 to 5 days. Short thaws are not terrible for outdoor sculptures, and if the above-zero temperature lasts for several days in a row, it is better to cover them with polyethylene.
DIY ice sculptures
If, inspired by the work of professionals, you want to feel like Pygmalion and sculpt your own ice Galatea - everything is in your hands. The main thing is to stock up ice suitable for creativity and use the right tools.
You will need:
- ice, water;
- tools
- benzo or hand saw, straight and angle scrapers, chisel, chisel, cutters;
- additional materials - stainless steel molds, wooden formwork, plastic containers, soap dishes, gouache or acrylic paints, polyethylene, plasticine.
Ice
You can order ready-made ice blocks or food ice, but it is much more interesting to prepare it yourself. Freezing tap water is not suitable: the ice will turn out cloudy. 
It is best to use natural ice. Using a hand or chainsaw, you need to cut a block about 100 x 50 x 25 cm in size from the ice cover, preferably not a flowing reservoir.
The fact is that due to the flow in the river, the ice is washed away from below - and does not reach the thickness required for work. If you have a pond on your site, ice from it is also quite suitable, the only condition is that the depth of the reservoir must be at least 50 cm. The block size of 100 x 50 x 25 cm is optimal, since it will be inconvenient to work with smaller blocks, and large - difficult to pull out of the pond.
In our middle lane in natural springs, ice reaches the required thickness by the end of December - beginning of January. If the winter turns out to be warm, you will have to use artificial material.
It is easy to prepare it.
Take a stainless steel form or wooden formwork, cover the bottom plastic wrap. You can also use plastic containers or soap dishes as a mold for small parts. Fill with prepared water purified from impurities and freeze in the freezer. True, in this case, freezing ice to create a large-sized figure will not work - after all, the volume of the freezer is not too large.
Process
- Sculpt a prototype of the future sculpture from plasticine. Alternatively, the sketch can be drawn on large white paper, wetted, and then applied to the ice mold and cut out along the outline.
- Ice blocks must be connected into a monolith. To do this, put the blocks prepared in advance one on one, pour water and immediately lay the next layer. Continue until you get the array you want. If you want the figure to be colored, add gouache or acrylic paint to the inner layer.
- Take a manual or chainsaw. Sawing off large pieces, give the sculpture an outline. It should be remembered that ice is a plastic material and can be easily processed at temperatures down to -28°C, but you need to work at temperatures from -2°C.
- To work out the details, you will need a straight and angled scrapers. The first - to break off the ice, the second - to turn the figure, make grooves and stripes. By the way, for the same purpose, you can use a chisel or chisel. Check out the sketch.
- When the figure is ready, pour water over it and wrap it tightly with polyethylene. Remove it after an hour.
DIY ice slide
Children will be delighted if, together with their parents, they build a slide for the most fun winter entertainment.
Process
- Carefully prepare the area where the slide will be located: it must be safe, without bushes, stumps and trees.
- Roll up snowballs - there should be a lot of them. Lay them in a slide, leave for a couple of days for the snow to compact. Level the surface with a shovel, make sides and steps.
- Pour the slide from a hose or watering can hot water and wait until the surface hardens. Then level again with a shovel and pour hot water again. All - you can ride.
Do-it-yourself iceware
A win-win way to surprise guests with an unusual serving is to make for festive feast dishes from ice: glasses, glasses, glasses, vases for fruit and ice cream, coasters for bottles. To make glasses or glasses, take Silicone forms, fill them with distilled or boiled water and put them in the freezer. The original glasses are enough for several toasts - then you have to repeat the procedure. Very elegant look vases for fruit or ice cream, made as follows. You will need two deep plates, water, leaves and flower petals. Put the leaves and petals in a plate, place a smaller plate in it, fill the space between the walls with water and put it in the freezer. To remove the ice vase, pour hot water over the plates.
The ice, of course, will melt over time.
But the process of creating ice sculptures or original items for the home will give so many positive emotions that the family will remember these holidays for a long time - and will look forward to the next ones.
Snow and ice sculptures and other snowy winter fun
“The bunny had a bast hut, and the chanterelle had an ice hut ...” - the fairy tale says. To create a similar miracle in your area, you do not need expensive materials and tools. Use improvised material - snow and ice!
Sculpt from the snow
The snowman became a kind fat man only in the 19th century, at the same time the famous canonical appearance appeared: the body of three snow globes different sizes, a bucket on the head and a nose made of carrots. Everyone probably knows how to mold such a character, but besides the classic snowman, you can sculpt a lot of interesting things! For example, you can turn a snowman upside down and give him real boots or felt boots! Or fashion your favorite cartoon characters from the snow. And if you recently had a good rest at the sea or discovered in yourself a passion for something monumental, take on the creation marine life from snow. To create such a masterpiece, “heavy artillery” is already required: shovels, scrapers, and even snow throwers or even tractors, but the result is worth it. Of course, it won’t be warm, like at sea, on the street, but you will collect enough “likes” in social networks!
Building a snow fort
If you have a big friendly company, why not arrange snow battles? Build real fortresses out of snow! The best conditions to create a snowy town are relatively high temperature (about OH) and high humidity. Just roll the balls like a snowman and stack them on top of each other. Unfortunately, such a fortress will look a little sloppy. Then attach snow globes form square blocks with a spade. Another way is to collect wet snow in 10-liter plastic buckets and tip them in the right places like molds in a sandbox.
At lower temperatures construction is also possible. Here you can not do without containers for snow and water. Snow during frosts is very dry, so it needs to be moistened: snow is collected in layers in a bucket or other container, each of which is spilled with a small amount of water from a watering can or a perforated plastic bottle.
After the frame of your fortress is ready, make it unique - think over the original appearance. Cut through windows and doors, loopholes, etc. maybe even snow tunnels. Place a flag on the very top of the building. And don't forget to prepare a sufficient amount of "ammunition": snowballs after the construction of the fortress will come in handy!
Angel in the snow
For those who like to wallow in the snow, there is a great idea - to create a snow angel! Find an area with an even layer of freshly fallen snow without extraneous marks, stand with your back to it and squat down. Then just lie down on the snow (it is important that your head is imprinted well) and spread your arms to the sides, spread your legs shoulder-width apart. Move your arms up and down the surface of the snow without bending them. to make angel wings. Also bring and spread your legs several times to make a skirt. Now it is important to rise without damaging the creation!
ice sculptures
If Rodin's fame haunts you, try yourself as an ice sculpture maker! They can be made from both natural and artificial ice. To do this, a block of ice is cut out of the ice cover of the reservoir with a chainsaw, which can later be used to create a sculpture.
At the same time, be careful: if the temperature a few weeks before was above 8 C, in no case step on the ice - it can still withstand you, and under the weight of the ice block it will crack. But such ice will not be of very high quality: it contains a lot of foreign impurities and air bubbles that make the ice cloudy. Even if you try to independently cast blocks of the desired size from clean water, “crystal”) there will be no transparency - air bubbles will still remain inside. The secret of making perfectly transparent blocks lies in the constant circulation of frozen water: in this way, much less bubbles are formed and the ice becomes suitable for sculpting.
To carve a sculpture from a finished block, you need to arm yourself with a chainsaw - it is with its help that the first outlines of the future sculpture are given to the ice. When this stage is completed, work is continued with cutters and a drill. If unnecessary “burrs” and bumps appear on the surface, heat these places with a regular hair dryer. The final touch - dousing the finished sculpture cold water. After this procedure, let the figure harden.
Having fun is extreme and expensive
For extreme people who want to try something new, we can recommend an attraction that is just starting to gain popularity in our country - zorbing. Its meaning is to lower a person in a transparent ball - a zorb - down a mountain or overcome any obstacles in it. The ball itself consists of two spheres: external and internal, between which air is pumped. In inner part the balloon climbs a passenger, who is already called "zorbonaft". It is thanks to the thick air layer, which gives some cushioning, that a person is comfortable enough to be inside.
However, you should not rely entirely on its softness - when falling from a great height, it will not be able to protect a person from injury. Therefore, when deciding to ride such an attraction, approach with all responsibility the search for a suitable company with experienced instructors. In this case, zorbing will bring only positive emotions: a lot of laughter, fun, adrenaline - such an unusual attraction will be remembered for a long time!
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Half a century ago, no one had heard of ice sculpture. Now every winter around the world in major cities and small villages, you can see people who are concentrated on hewing blocks of ice in order to build a palace out of them or create a gallery of fairy-tale characters.
China can be called the birthplace of ice sculpture, and not without reason: three hundred years ago, in the vicinity of Harbin, fishermen, going fishing in the winter, took ice lanterns with them on cold windy nights. They were made very simply: a basket of water was exposed to frost, then ice was taken out of it, a hole was hollowed out in it and a candle was inserted inside. Returning from fishing, the fishermen left the lanterns on the shore, and during the traditional winter holidays, children played with them. Gradually, children's games grew into an ice lantern show, and starting in 1963, into a popular ice sculpture festival. Now every year in January-February, residents of Harbin admire huge buildings made of ice bricks, gardens, waterfalls, Gothic cathedrals, carved flowers and dragons in city parks.
However, in fairness, it is worth recalling that the first recognized world masterpiece of ice architecture was created in Russia. In 1740, for the entertainment of the terminally ill Empress Anna Ioannovna, the Ice House was built in St. Petersburg, where all the furniture, curtains, dishes and even the cards lying on the tables were cut out of ice. Ice firewood in an ice fireplace burned, smeared with oil, an ice elephant at the entrance threw jets of water upwards, and ice cannons fired, respectively, ice balls. As you know, the “fun wedding” of the court jester Prince Golitsyn and the widow Buzheninova was also celebrated in this house. But the main thing is that the house itself made such a deep impression on contemporaries that they did not spare words, describing it for posterity.However, ice art became widespread already in our time, when power tools appeared that could significantly speed up the process of creating short-lived art objects.
Ice is a versatile material, suitable for figures and buildings of all sizes. And for the giant copy of the Great Wall of China in Harbin (2003), which you can walk along, and for the guillotine, created by American craftsmen at the festival in Ohio in 2006, and for the "flying" swans, made by Krasnoyarsk sculptors at the Perm festival in 1999 . At the championship in Fairbanks (Alaska) in 2005, American sculptors led by Stephen Berkshire carved a huge shark jumping out of the water right at the viewer, and a year later they created the thinnest traces of the legendary “Balto team”, which rushed down a steep hill in order to deliver in Nome, a life-saving shipment of diphtheria vaccine. At the same championship, but already in 2007, the American Peter Slavin and the Japanese Yunishi Nakamura created "weightless" wings, antennae and legs of a giant grasshopper.
Working with ice is similar to working with stone or wood, with the only difference that in this case it requires compliance with temperature regime. As soon as the thermometer falls below minus 35°C, the ice becomes brittle and brittle, which means that at any moment a crack can pass through the workpiece, and then start all over again.
The tradition of international festivals of ice art was laid by the Japanese. In 1950, local high school students in Sapporo made six snow sculptures. Ice began to work later. Now the festival annually presents more than three hundred snow and ice compositions. The construction of each of them takes 48 hours. Ice figures are exhibited in Odori Park and Susukino (in the hope that they will attract crowds of visitors to his entertainment establishments).An ice festival can have a specific theme, such as at the Korkeasaari Zoo near Helsinki, where the first part of the festival is traditionally devoted to animals. In Russia - in Perm, the festival called "And snow, and ice, and fire" is held for the 14th time. Festivals are usually held in countries where winter frosts allow you to keep the sculpture in the open air for at least a week, for the duration of the event.
One of the most significant international ice festivals is held in Alaska, in the already mentioned city of Fairbanks. It is organized in the form of competitions, where the participants are given a certain time to work, and the jury selects the winners in different categories and awards the title of world champion. Local ice, by the way, is considered the best. After all suitable material for an ice sculpture it is not easy to find: it must be as clean as possible, without sand and algae, otherwise the tools will quickly become dull. Dirty brown ice from the pond is suitable for building a winter town with slides, but not for high-class sculpture. High-quality ice should freeze quickly and at very low temperatures so that bubbles do not have time to form. Ice blocks can also be made in an industrial refrigerator, but this takes a lot of time - a brick laid according to the standard with a size of 1 × 1.5 × 0.25 meters freezes in such an installation for several days. Meanwhile, even a small festival requires several hundred tons of ice. In Fairbanks, in winter, the temperature drops below minus 40 ° C, and the blocks with a bluish tint, extracted from the local river, are so clean and transparent that you can read a newspaper through a meter layer of ice.
Children's amusement park in Nashville, USA. To keep it for two months, it is necessary to maintain a temperature of minus 9 ° C
Working alone with blocks that weigh up to a hundred kilograms is difficult, so teams of two and four people come to Alaska. The pair work for 60 hours, carving the intended object from a solid block of ice. Fours are given 110 hours to work. During this time, she must build a composition of many small bricks. Before the master begins to implement the pre-designed sketch, the blocks must be cut out of the river, at the risk of falling into the wormwood, dragged out of there with the help of tongs and ropes, dragged into a truck and delivered to the place. Here they are leveled, polished, moistened with water, and after a few minutes, when the bricks freeze to each other, processing begins. To create an ice sculpture, the same tools are used as for woodcarving. The best are Japanese cutters, which are produced specifically for processing ice, but their cost is very high - tens of thousands of dollars. Therefore, ordinary cutters and saws, as well as many other tools, are used.
Extra pieces of ice can be cut off with an ax, but from this the workpiece is covered with a network of small scratches, becomes cloudy, so a saw is most often used. Some masters, in order to avoid chips and cracks on the future lace or flower, remove the ice layer by layer with a razor, and only when it remains to remove just a little, they take a hacksaw, and then a cutter for turning small details. And now comes the final stage - polishing. The surface of the product is treated with a grinding wheel or a grater with metal spikes, and the patterns are cut with a grinder. To smooth out irregularities, remove scratches, add shine and make the ice shimmer, the figure is blown with a hairdryer, an iron, an electric soldering iron or even a medical device for cauterizing bleeding is applied to the surface - a thermal cautery. In special cases, in order not to inadvertently melt the excess, the ice is smoothed with the palm of your hand.The color of the sculpture is given by highlighting or tinting artificial ice even at the stage of its freezing. The masters treat the last method with coolness: colored ice loses its ability to play under the sun's rays. To emphasize the details, they often resort to another method. Grooves are cut out on the surface of the figure and filled with snow, paint, colored sand. This technique is often used by Tazana Raukar, a Montenegrin sculptor who, as part of the American team, won the World Championships in Fairbanks six times. This is how the mottled giraffe skin was created in the Animal Parade composition, which brought her team the championship in the Real Art category in 2005.
“Ice sculpture is like doping,” says American Steve Lester, who works with stone and wood in addition to ice. And for Viktor Chernyshev, this passion, which he contracted more than 20 years ago, led to the creation of the Association of Russian Sculptors for snow, ice and sand compositions and the organization of festivals throughout the country.
Ice sculpture often depicts heroes of popular cartoons and classic works, birds and animals, biblical characters. In Harbin you can see the figures of political leaders, Russian masters copy the plots of the paintings of the Tretyakov Gallery, in Antwerp the heroes of Rubens' paintings are popular, and in Austrian city Graz for Christmas somehow carved an ice nativity scene - Mary, Joseph, Jesus in the manger and the Magi. Among the ice architecture, small copies of famous buildings, Big Ben, for example, or St. Basil's Cathedral, are not uncommon.Work on ice, as a rule, requires high skill. The paradox lies in the fact that the compositions coming out from under the artist's chisel often acquire the features of a folk attraction. Ice restaurants and ice baths are being built, wedding table decorations and party utensils are made from ice. By independent projects in Sweden and Finland, ice hotels are built every winter. Tourists get the main pleasure here from new experiences, spending the night in an alpine sleeping bag on an ice bed at a temperature inside the “suite” of minus 3 ° C. At the festival in the Belgian city of Bruges, those who wished were offered to wash in an ice shower at a temperature of minus 12 ° C. Maybe such creativity does not quite fit into the concept of "art", but people like unusual sensations.
Perm Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival – www.ice.raid.ru
Alaska Ice World Championship - www.icealaska.com
Original taken from vodolei_idei in "Ice Ideas" with your own hands
Ice is a whole world of entertainment in winter. Ice is beautiful. Ice is creative.
Ice is room for imagination and original ideas. Tableware, decor, games, candles and lamps, houses...
Something I'll try to tell you...
Ice is frozen water. Can you put flowers there? Someone came up with this idea - to put a rose in ice vase
- it will melt, gradually opening the flower ... romantic ... But only for a winter party.
Follow the link - description http://pastelwhite.com/2012/12/23/diy-frozen-roses/
Ice Wreath.
A regular cake mold will do to make it.
They will look bright and elegant in a winter snow garden.
But you can decorate them not only winter Garden, but also used as a festive table decor.
In order for the "stuffing" to shine through the ice beautifully, it must be transparent.
HOW TO MAKE ICE TRANSPARENT AT HOME?
But "muddy" opaque ice is also effective. Such ice can be made ice buckets for champagne and lamps for candles.
Transparent and opaque ice can be combined to achieve the desired effect, as in the bottom photo.
This is such a "wreath - candlestick".
You can freeze inside any filling - for example, shells.
original openwork candle can be done with ice.
ICE FLASHLIGHT FOR THE STREET
The craft of ice lanterns is that the water near the walls freezes faster than inside.
Therefore, when a sufficient layer of ice has frozen, excess water just pour.
To supplement it with something or not - the creator decides)
ICE WARE
Almost by the same principle, you can make ice glasses. 
Containers for caviar from ice.
Ice dish for fruit it’s also easy to do - the shapes of a 5-liter water container are recognized, and the technology is the same: poured - froze - drained excess water.
And these summer ice containers with walls of flowers and herbs are unusually good, and just as simple in execution.
Cremanka for ice cream. What a beauty)))
different containers, different stuffing, different application.
By the way, the bottle does not have to be frozen - you can do ice stand under her.
Two containers of different diameters: the smaller one should correspond to the size of the bottle and be heavy (you need to fill it with something) so that water does not push it out.
And here is a very laconic stand.
In general, iceware is already made to order, professionally.
Buffet ice table at the wedding.
JUST ICE CUBES
Ice cubes are the easiest thing to create. But ordinary cubes can also be made festive, original.
Cubes with rosebuds, for example.
Or with cherries.
Or - with berries cut into pieces?
Or - with fruit juice or puree.
Or - very gently - with flowers.
FIGURED ICE.
Ice figurines - the simplest ones - can be made by pouring it into disposable glasses or yogurt containers, adding dyes, berries and leaves, bright plastic toys of your choice.
And the thread must be frozen there - hung on branches.
A more complicated mold can be molded from foil.
And confess your love to your (your) beloved (beloved). Inexpensive and touching idea for Valentine's Day.
You can freeze ice in children's molds.
It’s not bad to freeze a snowflake inside or tint it.
Perfect fit and different forms- for ice.
Yes, and just freeze a layer of water in a dish, put something there - it will turn out round ice pendant.
Inside is a frozen napkin.
Lime inside.
Pendant with orange and berries.
UNUSUAL FIGURES
By purchasing original forms, you can do, for example, ice rings.
Different forms - different figures.
But with the help of a rubber glove you can make famous Halloween ice hand.
For a cocktail.
For cold soup.
What about playing?
ICE PINS
Need:
9 plastic bottles filled with 0.5 - 1 liter of water,
1-3 balloons, a small amount of ink or other paint,
1 night of time for the skittles and balls to freeze.
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