Freezing point

Creating mammoth and intricate sculptures out of ice must count among the “coolest” jobs to have — quite literally. And Saurabh Katyal — the founder of Imagine Ice, which crafts everything from huge ice blocks called ‘Crystals’ (so clear that you can read a newspaper through them) to giant, frozen castles, bars, figures etc. — has the “chilly” distinction of having just such a job. Since Imagine Ice’s inception in 2012, it has become the only firm of its kind in Southeast Asia to manufacture crystal ice. As for how it all began, it was when Saurabh attended a charity ball in the UK and was immediately mesmerised by a magnificent ice sculpture he saw there. “As soon as I saw that ice sculpture, something clicked in my mind,” says Saurabh, chatting with us about his icy endeavour. “And I didn’t want to let go of the opportunity to become a pioneer in this field in India.”

Saurabh’s enthusiasm for his medium is very evident in the way he talks about it. “Ice is so unique to work with when compared with wood or stone. Apart from the obvious beauty, there’s a real intimacy in working with it. And if you make a bad piece, it’s gone by tomorrow,” he points out. Artists usually use tools like chainsaws, handsaws, hairdriers, irons and chisels to carve the ice, working in ultra-cold environments such as large walk-in freezers to guard against melting. Saurabh says there’s a beauty and serenity to the art despite the heavy machinery used to create it. “I have 2-3 international ice sculptors working with me and there’s a certain magic to working with ice… Especially when they are carving at night, you can hear the tools working away, and the snow flying through the air in the lights. In the end, it’s just like magic. The ice sculpture gets clearer and clearer as time goes by, slowly evaporates as the wind hits it and then it looks like glass,” he explains.

Delving into the art of sculpting ice, Saurabh tells us: “The first application of ice as an art medium is believed to have been in 1892 when renowned French chef Auguste Escoffier created an ice sculpture of a swan to accompany a new dessert he made.” The set-up that Saurabh works in might have been inconceivable to Escoffier: A 20,000 sq ft area in Mundka that is maintained at a temperature of -15oC throughout the year. The ice blocks are manufactured in Saurabh’s plant and kept in reserve (about 2,000 ice blocks are kept for emergencies, in storage). Whatever the order may be — from a 10 ft figure to a 30 ft high sculpture — it is assembled in Saurabh’s studio before the final delivery. Even a speck of dust isn’t allowed to settle on any of the frozen creations.

This year, on May 2, Saurabh’s team worked on their biggest project yet — a stunning ice castle for a wedding reception, about 30 ft in height and 20 metres in length. “The architecture of the Ice Castle took about 40 days of crafting before it was personified to its ice form from the blue print for this event. We had a team of five hand crafters flown down from Russia, the UK and Sri Lanka along with 40 crewmembers. We used 100 tons of ice — 100 ice blocks, each weighing about 100 kg, were first brought to the desired shape, design and size by the handcrafters. These blocks were then bubble-wrapped in the form of pallets containing 10 ice blocks each. And finally 14 reefer containers were used to transport these to the site for setup,” says Saurabh, of how they accomplished the feat. That his work — no matter how grand — is temporary, does not worry him. “The beauty of working with ice is that it will melt,” Saurabh says. “So you aren’t that protective of it and are happy to see it change and alter over time.”