The Ice Hotel is located in Jukkasjärvi in Sweden – a shivering 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle! All of the ice in the hotel, including the gorgeous clear columns, the intricate chandelier, and the impressive walls comes from the River Torne. This river apparently produces the clearest ice possible, because of the water’s purity and the steady movement of the river. It has an eerie, solemn, alien look to most of it, and the ice chandelier that you see at the start of the movie is one of the touches that makes it seem a bit more accessible and human. You could otherwise believe that you had stepped into a Martian palace, or even the ice world that Clark Kent was trapped in for a time between Supermans 1 and 2!

Ice is one of the easier materials to carve, once you have practiced the technique a bit, because of the regularity of the molecular structure of the sculpting material, its softness and availability. However, temperature is obviously a major challenge to overcome! When large sculptures are being made, machines are used nowadays, but the chandelier shown in the ice hotel could be made with only hand tools, patience and a love of ice and chandeliers. Unfortunately it is not possible to find antique ice chandeliers!You could try making something like this yourself – ice sculptors use block ice, drills, soldering irons and ice picks, as well as chainsaws for larger pieces, and there are also plenty of courses available on the web. Here is a beautiful chandelier which you can make yourself, at little cost, and have fun doing it – and best of all, it will live on only in your memory, where it can become as great as you want it to be!

Here’s a short tour through the Icehotel:

Photo credits: I am as cool as ice be Andrew Simpson, Ice chandelier by Jody Thomas

          

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