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The Craft of Ice Carvers

Ice chips were flying and Makita electric chainsaws were whining at Clark Park in Fish Creek the afternoon of Feb. 6 as 10 students in the Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) Culinary Arts program chipped away at 400-pound blocks of ice that they hoped to turn into works of art.

The students were paired off in groups of two to design and create ice carvings for the Fish Creek Winter Fest. The students pointed out that this was their first attempt at a full carving with power tools.

The students said they had taken the elective ice carving class to round out their culinary experience. “And it sounded like fun,” said Abby Retzlaff, who was working on a pair of penguins with her carving partner Ashley Stini.

“We’re glad to be invited,” said Stini, who was recently part of a five-member FVTC student team that took top place honors at the 2015 American Culinary Federation cooking competition in Madison. The team will compete in the divisional competition in Little Rock, Ark., next month.

“They get to feed off of each other on what they do,” said FVTC Culinary Arts instructor RC Schroeder, who was overseeing the carving with fellow instructor Gary Lyons, both of whom looked on, offered advice and chipped in where needed.

“We’ve had three weeks of classes,” Schroeder said. “We’ve done some work with ice at school, but this is their first real carving. They’ll carve today and tomorrow (during Fish Creek’s Winter Fest), and then we’ll go back to school and they’ll carve again.”

Lyons said the blocks of ice cost $80 to $100 each. “So it could be a costly mistake if you mess up. A fish could become a mushroom,” he said.

“It’s great practical experience for them,” said Schroeder. “This is the only event we do as a class. This is my fifth year bringing students up here. It works really well.”

Franci Hencke and Logan Christensen were trying to coax a fish from their block of ice.

“It’s actually a lot easier than we thought it would be,” Hencke said. “The power tools help. Before this we’ve only used chisels.”

Schroeder said getting used to the power tools is often the biggest challenge for students.

“A lot of them are afraid of the power tools at first, or never really experienced them,” he said.

What about the art aspect of creating a recognizable carving from an icy monolith?

“You don’t have to be artistic to do it. Some are, some aren’t. I teach them how you can do it with out being artistic,” Schroeder said.

The first step is creating a template for your design. Perhaps the most difficult among the five student carvings was the design by Emily Tauschek and Paul Thornton, a flowerpot holding flowers.

Their original design included big flower heads on thin stems rising out of the flowerpot. Schroeder saw the inherent danger in attempting to create stems, so suggested the students lower the flowers to the edge of the flowerpot so they wouldn’t have to make the fragile stems.

Once the template has been etched into the ice, the student carvers then began carving out chunks of ice to bring their designs out of the one-dimensional ice. That was followed with chisel, carving and etching tools to give shape and texture to the designs.

“It’s starting to look like an eagle, which is what we’re going for,” said Mercedes Marcoux, who was paired with Mason McDaniel. “This is definitely an experience.”

More Ice Carving at Sturgeon Bay’s Fire & Ice Festival

If you missed the ice carving last weekend at Fish Creek’s Winter Fest, you can see local and professional ice carvers on Saturday, Feb. 14, during the 10th annual Fire & Ice Festival in Sturgeon Bay. The carving begins in downtown Sturgeon Bay at 9 am. Event maps with ice-carving locations will be available at most businesses and at the Sturgeon Bay Visitor Center, 36 S. 3rd Ave. The public is encouraged to vote for favorite carvings by filling out the People’s Choice Award ballot, which comes with each map. Sculpture judging takes place at 2 pm, with an awards ceremony to follow at the visitor center at 3 pm Ribbons and cash prizes will be awarded in three categories:  Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced.