A craftsman from Waterford has made history after competing at the World Ice Art Championships in the United States.<\/p>\n
John Hayes became the first Irish competitor to take part in the prestigious event, which has run annually in Alaska since 1989. The competition attracts more than 100 ice sculptors from across the world, who transform huge blocks of ice into intricate works of art.<\/p>\n
Hayes braved freezing conditions to compete against some of the top ice sculptors globally and came fourth place overall.<\/p>\n
Waterford Inspiration in the Ice<\/p>\n
Speaking to WLR, Hayes said his upbringing in Waterford influenced his approach to sculpting ice.<\/p>\n
He said the experience reminded him of the famous craftsmanship associated with Waterford Crystal.<\/p>\n
Hayes explained that when light passed through the ice, it created a striking effect similar to crystal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt reminded me a lot of Waterford Crystal,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could see the colours and the light passing through it. Every time I cut into the ice, it reminded me of the crystal bowls people grew up with in Waterford.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brutal Conditions During the Competition<\/p>\n
The Waterford craftsman also described the extreme conditions competitors faced while working outdoors in Alaska.<\/p>\n
Teams worked in short bursts because of the intense cold.<\/p>\n
Hayes said competitors moved between the sculpture site and a heated tent to warm up before returning to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a warming tent behind the sculpture,\u201d he said. \u201cYou went in for about ten minutes with the heaters and then went back out for another ten minutes working on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the breaks, the cold still took its toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy eyelids froze solid and my eyes stuck together,\u201d he said. \u201cEven my breath froze onto the mask and tore the skin off my lips.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olympic Ambitions<\/p>\n
Hayes said the competition marks an important step towards a major goal.<\/p>\n
His performance at the championships earned him fourth place at the world level, which he hopes will help him qualify to represent Ireland in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole reason I\u2019ve gone down this road is that in four years\u2019 time I hope to represent Ireland at the Winter Olympics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hayes explained that his result at the world championships now gives him the opportunity to compete for a place at the games expected to take place in France.<\/p>\n
Global Competition<\/p>\n
The World Ice Art Championships sees teams and individual sculptors carve massive blocks of ice into detailed abstract and realistic designs.<\/p>\n
For Hayes, becoming the first Irish competitor marks a significant achievement for both himself and Waterford craftsmanship on the international stage.<\/p>\n
For the latest Waterford\u00a0News<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sport<\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0tune into WLR News on the hour and download the WLR App for news on demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A craftsman from Waterford has made history after competing at the World Ice Art Championships in the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46,163484],"class_list":["post-331719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-john-hayes-world-ice-art-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}