London Ice Festival 2013: See The Sculptures That Made Our Day (PHOTOS)

Today the London Ice Sculpting Festival welcomed participants from all over the world for the three-day timed event. International competitors in the singles competition were given a one-meter block of ice and two and a half hours to saw, chip, hack, and chisel their way to glory.

The theme of this year's doubles competition is "The Wonders Of The Universe and Infinity" in recognition of NASA's ongoing Mars mission, but freestyle artists got creative with their tributes. The sculptors used buzzing chainsaws to slice away huge sections of the ice and other tools to create delicate details in the works. As the artists carve away with their saws in the photos below, you can see plumes of ice shavings rising like sawdust, leaving a mat of snow around their new works.

The festival runs January 11-13 at Canary Warf, London.