James Tottle from Ebbw Vale's Coldrush Ice Art carves King Charles

Coldrush will be aiming to push the boundaries of party ice sculptures, as well as covering all other aspects of the ice industry.

From his new business, he will be supplying everything from live carving, team building workshops, and personalised ice cubes for commercial and personal use.

James has been “arty” for lack of a better term since as long as he can remember. Over the years he’s tried to make sense of where “talent” comes from and he genuinely feels it can be reduced simply to interest or better still, obsession.

A hippo carved from ice by James Tottle

James told Voice: “For me as a child where most kids would walk past a statue or a realistic painting without really noticing it, I on the other hand would stare at pieces of art and be mystified that a human created something so amazing with their hands and would try to imagine how it was done.

“I feel that visual artists are addicted to both consciously and subconsciously studying the aesthetics of the seemingly mundane world around them and I definitely have that addiction – things like book covers or posters I would find myself staring at for hours.

“As for my personal journey, I remember while kids my age were drawing circle faces, I would be more interested in drawing details like creases in clothes. As I started to notice praise from adults, I naturally started to gain self-esteem from feeling like I was good at something, and I suppose it got me hooked on drawing and it made want to get better and better.

Artist James Tottle at work

“As a kid in the south Wales valleys in the early 90s there was no tangible future in art, it was a more like a party trick, being the ‘good at drawing kid’. “It wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I really started to study art properly in any meaningful way.

“My brother Ryan who is three years older than me and a very successful artist was always above me in skill level, which helped inspire and push me. “He studied hard and when he started working real life jobs as an artist, I realised I’d better buck my ideas up and follow suit.

“It was after all now very clear that there was potentially an actual future in working as an artist.

An enormous Groot created by James Tottle

“I’d been doing odd art jobs as a muralist and prop maker for random private commissions when my good friend and fellow artist Adam Khan (aka The Lettafella) heard about an ice sculptor job and suggested giving it a go.

“I’ve watched videos of ice sculptors in the past but never thought I’d ever get the chance to have a go, so I took a punt showed them my portfolio of random clay sculptures and drawings to see what they thought. They clearly saw something in me and before I knew it, I was holding a chainsaw for the very first time, in a freezer with a big block of ice in front of me. This is cool... I thought (waka waka!).

“Fast forward almost a decade and its crazy to think how much that one moment would change and enrich my life. People always ask, ‘don’t you get cold?’ and the answer is always that surprisingly not so much. Even at temperatures of between minus 10 and minus 18 you’d be surprised at what swinging a chainsaw and wrestling insanely heavy blocks of ice does to your core temperature, especially if like me you run hot naturally.

The detail on these ice bears is amazing

“It goes without saying that ice sculptors dress for the job, ski trousers, insulated safety boots, thick socks, bobble hats, thermals, big coats, and good insulated, and waterproof gloves are commonly worn.

“As for the tools, I personally use chainsaws to get most of the ‘roughing out’ done, then I use chisels, then die grinders, which are giant Dremel’s.

“I also love using angle grinders, Dremel’s for fine detail and other hand tools such as keyhole saws. sometimes I even use heat guns or blow torches to achieve certain effects.

“For more clinical, corporate work I also use a CNC machine which is one of the most valuable tools in the production of commercial ice products.

“Does it melt? Yes! however it takes longer than most people would think. For example, a single bock sculpture in room temp will still be a substantial amount of ice even 12 hours later although it probably won’t look like anything other than an abstract blob at that point.

James Tottle's sculpture of King Charles III

“As for the type of ice, well its nothing more than frozen water however it’s made in a special way to eliminate air bubbles.

“An ice cube from your freezer tray will be cloudy, this is simply the trapped air. This type of ice is less attractive, far more brittle to carve but most importantly will melt much quicker because its half ice, half air.

“The most popular designs are things like names and numbers for birthday parties and weddings, as well as animal sculptures of people’s pets, branded corporate sculptures. Army cap badges and tanks, planes, and ships for military mess parties. And then the random weird and wonderful one offs.

“I’ve made plenty of funny x-rated stuff for stag and hen parties, and a few practical jokes too, which is always fun. I was once asked to make peeing cherub statue last year with ‘real peeing action’. Sometimes it’s best to not ask why and just crack on and get the job done – sure keeps life interesting!

“I have made many sculptures I’m proud of, some of the most successful are animal or creature sculptures or anything with lots of texture or detail because that’s some of my favourite stuff to do.

“I think that one of my favourite sculptures which incidentally took first place at a competition with the theme ‘climate change’ was one of a tsunami about to wipe out a city. It turned out exactly how I’d drawn it and visually told a complete story, plus it photographed incredibly well, which is always a challenge with ice sculptures.

“In my time I have made some massive sculptures, I’d say the tallest was around 15 feet tall. Making such gigantic sculptures is extremely tiring and for most of the process feels more like wrestling than making art.

“Using gigantic chainsaws and smashing off huge chunks with giant chisels, is very exhausting, dangerous as hell, and absolutely wonderful fun!

“Mostly ice sculptures are made in a freezer to then be transported, some are made in situ in cold countries or in huge temperature-controlled tents for large winter wonderland or ‘ice bar’ types of attractions in the hospitality sector.”

Voice commissioned James to sculpt a portrait of HRH King Charles III for the cover of our May edition to commemorate the occasion.

Human faces and figures are renowned by pretty much every sculptor, ice or otherwise as the hardest subject to pull off. To achieve a likeness, you need to get the facial proportions, depths, and shapes as accurate as possible. Lots of photographic reference and a disciplined, patient approach.

James said: “I’d like to thank the Voice for the opportunity to sculpt the likeness bust of HRH King Charles.

“Luckily for me, King Charles has some pretty recognizable features, which definitely helps when creating likeness sculptures, simply because you can exaggerate certain elements to drive the point home – hopefully I did him just-ice!

“Typically, before I start a challenging ice sculpture I gather as much visual reference as possible, like I did for the king.

“If I’m lucky enough to have time to plan, I’ll find myself mentally preparing for it in the run up, literally imagining how the process will play out, this way you can adjust for problems you may encounter while working.

“Subtractive sculpture is kind of like a puzzle, it helps to visualize before you start. It’s basically like a simulation you run in the background in your mind whilst watching TV – I ask myself what do I need to keep and what can I get rid of, and then in what order.

“A good way of looking at it is by carving a horse out of a block – you simply need to get rid of everything that’s not the horse! Of course, mistakes happen no matter your experience levels, but they do get less common.

“Ice is fragile, and the nature of carving can mean one momentary lapse in concentration can make for a catastrophic error. The best option is obviously to make the right decisions every step of the way however life is life, and it doesn’t always play out like that but there are ways to fix certain errors. “Water is an ice sculptors glue, and we have techniques to get pretty good joins that can be almost invisible.

“Bigger ice sculptures are commonly made out of lots of standard sized blocks so joining or ‘welding’ them together is common practice. (You can see the line in the King’s chest where I’ve joined two blocks together).

“Making sculptures out of ice specifically is very humbling. No matter how good or bad a job you feel you’ve done your efforts literally melt away. “Some sculptures are straightforward, and some are complex but by far the hardest ones are during speed carving competitions. You have a single working day to stack your blocks and carve your giant ice sculpture as close to your design as possible. It’s the limitations of time and sometimes warm weather conditions or uneven ground that make this some of the most challenging work.

“For example, I have competed in the Tatry Ice Master competition in Slovakia a few times as part of a two-man Welsh team, me, and Danny Thomas (a great local chainsaw carver) where we’ve won first place on a number of occasions.

“Carving competitions and international events are definitely a highlight of my career as an ice sculptor. Travelling for work and meeting others who do this from all over the world is always amazing fun and ice sculptors tend to be very sociable and a bit odd which suits me down to the ground.

“I’ve gained some amazing friends who I look forward to seeing on different projects. Last year I was lucky enough to be invited to work on Zwolle ice festival in the Netherlands, it boasts the best snow, sand, and ice artists in the world, so I was incredibly honoured to be considered an equal amongst such insanely talented artists.

“I recently got the chance to work with Hamilton ice sculptors too, a London based company and the founding ice sculptors in the UK. The work included many weeks at their London studio as well as two weeks in Belgium’s state of the art giant ice factory all to be shipped to Hyde parks Magical Ice Kingdom. The guys at Hamilton are amazing and I can’t wait to work with them again.

“I also did my first sand sculptures last year with a mate Zara Gaze who I also met ice carving, one of the sand jobs was at Glastonbury Festival and obviously insane amounts of fun so you never really know where life will take you.

“I never would have imagined the level of personal validation I would get from my weird hobby and eventual skill set. I’m truly lucky to have realised my path and to be living it. Through the ups and the downs, I honestly wouldn’t change it for the world.

“To be opening my own business is a dream come true, especially close to my hometown. I’m extremely passionate about this venture and would love to chat to anyone interested in my work. Please feel free to drop me a message or a phone call to arrange a visit to see what I can do.”

As well as working with ice, James also takes on other commissions to keep his skills sharp and varied, including wood sculptures, sign writing, and painting murals.

Be sure to look at more of his exemplary work via his website and social media sites. coldrushice.co.uk coldrushiceart@gmail.com 07814176585 Instagram: @jtottlemakes Instagram: @coldrush.ice