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Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Fire and Ice



More pictures from Bradford's 'Fire and Ice' Spectacular...   The fire came in the shape of an towering robotic reflective metal sculpture with glowing lights - the Ice Queen - that glided along on wheels and emitted huge billows of flames.  Definitely spectacular!  I don't know what the children made of it.  I would have been terrified as a child, but today's kids seem to be made of stronger stuff.














The ice was a trail of attractive ice sculptures around the city centre, that told the story of a kind-hearted little angel who had no wings. Of course, she earned her wings in the end, though by the time the sculptor, Jamie Wardley, had finished carving the last block, the angel's wings were fast vanishing, melting on what was - for November - quite a warm day in the sheltered city centre.  Jamie, of 'Sand in Your Eye', is a local artist with an international reputation, who uses sand and ice for his work.  He made an amazing sand sculpture of Charles Darwin in Bradford two years ago, to mark the bicentenary of Darwin's birth.

10 comments:

  1. Last year ice sculpture would have worked beautifully; it was starting to get cold around this time. The flame-throwing monster would certainly have scared me.

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  2. This must have been quite a sight to behold, even though some of the sculptures were already starting to melt. Bet no one's complaining about the warmer snap :)

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  3. Great photos and amazing stories as always. What a wonderful sight, my children would be absolutely in awe. And special greetings to your new grandaughter (I hope I'm right in saying that), what a beauty.

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  4. Hi Jenny .. those sculptures are so good .. the sand and glass ones - I'm always amazed at. Thanks for sharing - Hilary

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  5. Can you imagine ice sculpts made in the Philippines? We see them quite often despite the tropical climate, there are a lot of talented Filipino sculptors. I understand they are hired on the cruise ships.

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  6. I'm always amazed by ice sculpture. We see small creations at indoors events, and I remember larger, outdoor creations at St. Paul Winter Carnival in Minnesota, which is held in February. But it seems a shame to do them in November and watch them melt even as they're being carved. Jim

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  7. Good pair of shots to go with the title.

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  8. This fire-breathing metal sculpture is fantastic. I'm not a child, and it scares me!

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  9. What an excellent image of the ice sculpture. I took a pic of the self same piece and mine did not turn out half as good as yours, indeed I could hardly see the sculpture on my pic . . .
    Folk often bemoan the lack of "quality" shops in Bradford as compared with Leeds or Manchester. That maybe so at the moment, but one thing we can do in Bradford is put on a good street festival. I feel that it is perhaps the smaller more"intimate" city centre unique to Bradford that lends itself to maximising the impact of such events.

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  10. How exciting it would be to see something like this in person! ~Lili

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