A north Norfolk-based artist has won an international winter sports title after creating a sculpture of one of late music legend David Bowie's shoes, fashioned from a gigantic block of snow.

Kate Munro, who lives at Sheringham, took up the unusual sport of snow carving after meeting fellow artist and sculptor Lisa Lindqvist – whose mother hails from Lapland – at art college.

The team-mates came up with their Ziggy Stardust-inspired high-heeled design, which, in October, was chosen as the UK entry into the annual Kiruna International Snow Festival, held last week in the most northerly town in Sweden. 'Of course, at the time we had the idea, David Bowie was still alive and it was only later that we thought: 'Yes, that is definitely who the shoe has to belong to'. Perhaps he was dancing so hard in heaven it floated down,' Kate said.

With each team given a three-metre-square block of snow weighing nearly 20 tons from which to create their sculpture, the challenge, she added, was to give the shoe a graceful, delicate effect.

After taking three days working from 5am to 6pm on their shoe, Kate and Lisa, whose other snow carving efforts have included a giant armchair, a curled feather and a series of figures climbing through a tunnel, were thrilled to be named overall winners of the competition, bagging a £500 cash prize.

'There was such an amazing range of sculptures that I had no idea how the jury would begin to choose between them, so it was absolutely lovely to win,' Kate said.

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