Frozen in Time 2

Number two in the series with another already in preparation for tomorrow.

To answer a couple of queries from yesterday :

Yes, this is real ice and not a Photoshop trick. Try it yourself and watch this space tomorrow for an idea for your very own personalised Christmas Cards.

All you have to do is get hold of an appropriate flower and a plactic lunchbox or Tupperware container. Fill container to a suitable depth, place object within and consign to ice box of 'fridge until solid. I then remove my ice block from the container and lay it on a large sheet of white polystyrene board. Photograph in good light, or better still using a flashgun about a foot (30cm) or so to one side.

Tips 1. To get ice block out of container quickly just turn upside down and run the cold tap on bottom of container. You should hear the ice go "crack" as it releases and falls out. Be ready to catch it.

Tip 2. After putting box into ice box, keep an eye on it for a while. Organic matter such as flowere tend to float on the water and may move off into corners etc. where you don't want them to be. So, to avoid this check them out as they freeze and gently tease them back into position. You might have to do this a couple of times before the water chills enough to stop any movement.

Finally, enjoy your experiments. Have fun and if you get some good results pass the idea on to someone else who may need to produce winter in the middle of summer.