Video

Inside an Ice Sculptor’s Studio

A sculpture takes a day to carve, eight hours to lose detail, and several days to disappear.

Tucked away in a studio in Queens, New York, Shintaro Okamoto oversees a group of artists who spend their days gearing up chainsaws, stacking blocks of ice in walk-in freezers, and delivering delicate yet complex ice sculptures around New York City.

Shintaro, who grew up playing with ice in Alaska, founded Okamoto Studio with his father in 2003. The artists there use power tools to create intricate sculptures, usually commissioned pieces for events.

Working with ice is both seductive and liberating—it takes considerable skill and patience to work with a material that is quite literally freezing. And it’s bittersweet to know the detail and artistry that goes into each sculptures will ultimately melt away. Watch how the process works in the video above.