_ extreme-design

Had a great day today, we made a huge a amount of progress. With some of the lighting in situation and working its a big moral boost. this morning however we came into problems and were unable to fix the lighting in place, but being quick thinking designers came up with a solution! Soft powdery snow ( Snis ) rubbed into the routed channels then doused with freezing water… glue!

We were a camera man down today as Vegas put his back out putting his shoes on. Now we’ve have four still cameras four moving and two hands.

As well as our lighting successes we were entertained by some far superior lighting: the northern lights! was amazing to see.

For the second night in a row we were the last to leave the icy hotel, at 23:15 we left having had another grueling but hugely rewarding 13 hour day. We topped it off by playing around with our lighting in the suite, acting the fool is OK when you have exhaustion as an excuse!

up and out by 08:30 for sunrise on the roof of the ice hotel.

YOU TUBE TIME LAPSE

After a great night last night we made a fairly slow start, feeling like been runover by a snow blower.

Today was a big day with us wanting to complete the lower run of ice blocks which flank the suite.  We found it very tough to get the levels right so that the slabs align and are in the plane.

We clad the rear of the blocks in felt to give it a black appearance.  Our technique was to ‘glue’ the felt using water.  Because it is so cold in the suite water will freeze in very little time… this was our glue!  Draping the saturated felt on the slab and pouring a little water we found worked the best. However because it really is too cold the ice is very brittle and we shattered 3 out of 9 slabs.  At lunch we were extremely demoralized and damn pissed off!

But we worked though and finished at 23:15, so a good days progress… tomorrow LIGHTS !

Day two at the ice hotel.

After some heavy lifting at high level we have completed the main rear wall base layer.  It was very tough going and quite dangerous at one point, lifting 100cm x 100cm x 10cm to 3.5m… at 100kg per slippery block it was quite scary getting it in place.

We made some steady progress, despite Ian feeling ill.

Had some beers in the evening with our fellow ice artists, wonderful to be in these surroundings with so many passionate, talented and very nice people.

After along journey, from london, and shanghai Ben Rousseau + Ian Douglas – Jones made it to the Ice Hotel in Kiruna. 400 km north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden.  Not without dramas however.  Ian was held up in Shanghai for almost 7 hours, which had a knock on effect on his three connecting flights.  With a short time line each day is crucial so missing flights could be catastrophic for the project success.