Metro Ice Sculptures

Winter Wakeboarding Project

2011-04-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'll be the first to admit it, I have a very weird job. I work weird hours, I work in weird conditions, I carve weird things... My most recent project was no different. I met this kid, Adam Buck (Buck for short) while I was doing some carvings for the Red Bull Open Ice Hockey tournament in Roseville in early March. He pulled me aside and started talking to me about this project that he was in charge of. And all he said was this: "I'm working on making a wakeboarding rail out of ice". Me, being an avid wakeboarder in the summer time, knew exactly what he was talking about. So, I worked on this private lake cutting out ice, stacking it up, and shaping it into a rail for an entire week. After a grueling week physically, Red Bull flew two professional wakeboarders up from Orlando to ride the rail, along with a local Minnesota rider. Here's what we came up with...

RED BULL ICE RAIL VIDEO

We did it again...

2011-04-01T23:05:00.000-07:00

I was cruising the Marvin Windows Facebook page, like I have for a couple months now, to try and find a video of a commercial I did for them last November. Well, today I found it... Check it out! It has been so cool working on two commercials this past year. I'd definitely like to keep working on fun projects like this. I think that ice carving, as an industry, is heading to a really cool place. With the recent addition of Ice Brigade to the Food Network lineup, our exposure is being broadcast to a whole new audience or reaching people that may have forgotten about us... It is innovative ideas and novel concepts that add to our ever-expanding product lines. I've mentioned in an earlier blog that we "are only limited by the imagination", and this commercial, along with the Explore Minnesota spot only solidify my point. There is one more video that should be coming out in the next couple of weeks that will probably blow some people's minds, again, re-emphasizing my point.

To the Big Screen

2011-03-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

I have sooo much stuff to talk about, but I won't drop all of it on you at once. I guess I haven't blogged since October and I apologize, but its a good thing. It means that I've been busy. One of the projects that I worked on this past December was the new Explore Minnesota Tourism Commercial. They called me to carve a giant letter "e" that was going to be a part of the final shot. So I ended up spending the whole day at the shoot and didn't get my part shot until the wee hours of the morning. It was so much fun and the video concept is very cool. Go to the link below to watch the video. I make my on camera debut at the :49 second mark. There are a couple other videos that I will be apart of, but I'll post those when they come out. Check out the video here on YouTube.

Vision is Important

2010-10-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

This past week (Thursday to be exact) was the 2nd Annual Vision Awards, presented by Meetings Minnesota, Minnesota's Hospitality Journal. I met Jessica Onarheim this past March on a ski trip up north. She told me all about her job at Greenspring Media and we figured that there would eventually be a project that we could work on together. Last week was that project. We did one of our custom Logo Perfect ice sculptures. It was a fun piece to do. Very clean, simple, elegant and, dare I say it, sexy. We put it on a decorative base, accented it with a pair of LED lights. Oh, and the party was pretty fun too.

I just want to thank Jessica Onarheim, Meetings Minnesota, Greenspring Media, Susan Austin Photography and the St. Paul Hotel for sponsoring and hosting an awesome event.

-Metro Ice Sculptures

Defy Conventional

2010-09-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, Chef Francisco from the Golden Valley Golf & Country Club came to me to do a piece for some of his customers. They wanted to do a shrimp display. But they wanted to do something that was different than what most people have done with ice. I gave him some options and some designs, but it wasn't quite what they had in mind. So, Francisco's customer came to him with something that he had seen on a different website, a Shrimp Luge. He asked if we could do it. Without a doubt... But they wanted their logo in it.

Custom Shrimp Luge

Now take the concept of a luge (in ice terms), usually means pouring a shot or martini down a carved channel, dispensing somewhere on the bottom. We've done a post on these shot or martini luges, so I'm gonna stay away from this topic for now. But then you get to the concept of a food luge... Put your food (in this case shrimp) in the top of the ice and it dispenses somewhere out the bottom. I've seen a couple versions of this from various sculptors around the country. Here's what we came up with...

Shrimp Luge

The concept is pretty creative, and I can't take full credit for that. But it just goes to show you that anything is possible. We created the shape of the luge and hollowed out the inside, cut off the front slab, and put it in our CNC machine to get the logo on it, then froze it back together. Chef said that they were going to have almost 30 lbs of shrimp in there... Needless to say, it was pretty awesome!

Until next week...

Another Weekend, Not Just Another Marquee

2010-09-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

I met John while growing up in Chicago. He was a wiry kid, a year older than I, who loved sports. We played baseball together for a couple years in the Western Suburbs. We used to run around the town together, causing trouble, hanging out at parks, the swimming pools and ultimately the YMCA during the winter times going to open ice skating, trying to pick up girls. No doubt he is one of my dearest friends.

Then, life and distance got in the way, and we grew apart. I moved to La Crosse, WI, then to Minnesota, off to North Carolina and back to Minneapolis, where I live now. We would chat on the phone only a couple times a year. It was about three years ago that he told me he met and was dating this "awesome girl from Elmhurst", the city we grew up in. Over the next two years, I kept hearing more and more about their relationship and how they were moving in together, and how they rescued two dogs, and how she was finishing school at De Paul, and how he really liked her.

A year and a half ago, I moved back to MN from NC and he told me that he comes up to Minneapolis for business periodically. On his next trip up, he came over for dinner and we talked for three hours, catching up, reminiscing, and sharing tales. This was the rekindling of our friendship. At this point, I already knew that he was engaged... But he asked me to stand up for him in his wedding. How could I say no? It was on a trip to Chicago last winter that I finally met Kristen, and she is everything that John said she is. And so, the date was set for Labor Day 2010 and the months turned into weeks and the weeks turned into days and the days led up to the wedding. I wanted to give them something special for their wedding. Not just a cookie cutter wedding present that they registered for, but something truly unique.

Well, I own an ice sculpture company and make some pretty killer sculptures, right? It wasn't hard to figure out... So, a couple weekends ago, I made them an ice sculpture, a Wedding Marquee, and brought it down for their special day. And I think it really turned out very nicely. Clean, simple, elegant. Everything that a wedding should be.

I couldn't be happier for the two of them. They are perfect for each other and I'm so excited to watch their relationship continue to bloom. I look forward to many more trips to Chicago and for John to come up here. I'm sure they'll never read this, but they are truly two exceptional people and I wish them the best.

With love,

Trevor Pearson

The Knot

2010-09-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

If you have gotten married in the last couple years, are getting married or are just thinking about getting married, then you've probably heard of The Knot. The Knot is the single largest wedding websites in the country. They cater to 43 different markets (cities or regions) around the country. You can find pretty much anything in the magazines or on www.TheKnot.com. If you are like us, and have something totally unique to offer brides, then this is the place you want to be.

Through our networking and sales efforts, we've come into contact with Lora from At Your Service Weddings and we must say, she is definitely one of the best in all of Minneapolis / St. Paul. She has a wealth of knowledge that she has been willing to share with us and has been most helpful. The Knot came to her and asked if she would help put on the Minneapolis / St. Paul Knot Market Party, and of course she obliged... So, its been left to her discretion to find different vendors to showcase at the Market Party this Wednesday. And guess who made the cut? METRO ICE SCULPTURES! We were so pumped when she and Julie (from The Knot) asked us to do some stuff for the party. How could we turn it down? There won't be any brides there (bummer, I know) but there will be a wealth of industry professionals and a great opportunity to make some great connections.

When we were starting to think about what we wanted to display, the Wedding Marquees, which we've mentioned in our first post, were the first thing we wanted to do. They are so unique and beautiful that we had to do one (or two?). We also have the Bouquet Holders which we've mentioned in a previous post as well. Then, we wanted to switch it up a little bit. The people from The Knot have all kinds of crazy branding policies that have to be followed very closely. And we understand, we too are working on our branding every day. One of the cooler things that we saw on the branding sheet was this pattern that they have from their "Design Elements" section. And we thought that it was really cool. So we wanted to incorporate it into a piece. So, we took this pattern and carved it into the back side of a square pillar. We also added the Knot logo into it to keep up with the branding guidelines. The whole concept was based off of our custom Table Numbers.

We're sooooo excited to do this party, that we had to give you a little sneak peak at a couple of the things that we did. So without further ado...

The Knot Market Party Bouquet Holder

The Knot Market Party Entrance Marquee

Wish us luck. We'll try and get some good pictures at the party. There might be a photographer or six there that might snap some good pics.

Until next week,

Be good!

Target Field

2010-08-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

We have been fortunate enough to be able to do a BUNCH of sculptures for Target Field for their inaugural season. For those of you who have been to the stadium, its absolutely beautiful! The limestone exteriors, every amenity you could think of inside, and hands-down the best stadium cuisine that we've ever had. One of the reasons for the good food is because of the contracted out food company, Delaware North Companies Sportservice. Chef Pastor Jiminez is the Executive Chef and runs a great system.

Usually, DNC orders a sculpture every 3-4 weeks or if the Twins have an important or popular series. We first contacted Chef Pastor four weeks before Opening Day to see if they have thought about using ice sculptures for any of their club rooms or suites. Chef asked us to bring in some samples, so we had to knock their socks off... We have the ability to duplicate most any logo into ice. These are called our Logo Perfect ice sculptures. Being their Inaugural Season, we thought that it would be fitting to take the Inaugural Season logo and put it in ice.

They have been using sculptures mostly in their Champions Club Room down, underneath the stadium. Usually it is a food display that has a hollowed out tray for shrimp, holes for shooters and a second tier for oysters. A couple of weeks ago, Target Field hosted the MLB Owners Meeting. Chef Kurt Chenier (Suites Chef) called us and said that he wanted to do something big. So we did... a life sized (6 feet tall) baseball player, holding a real wooden bat. I delivered it on a Tuesday afternoon, before all the owners got there, but all the staff thought it was one of the coolest things they've ever seen.

Quick Wedding Marquee Post

2010-08-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

I didn't have any time at the end of last week to write a post and I apologize to my friend Amanda who probably had nothing to read at work last Friday. So, I wanted to talk about the wedding I attended this past weekend in Plymouth.

I met Lauren and Danny about a year ago through some mutual friends. She's probably the nicest girl I've ever met and to this day, I don't think I've ever seen her NOT smile. And her fiancé is probably one of funniest guys that I've had the pleasure of sharing a ski lift with. Basically, they're such a cute couple that it makes me still believe in love...

I had been working on getting them to buy an ice sculpture since the first night that I met them. Our mutual friend told me that they were engaged to be married and I should do and ice sculpture for them. They were like most any couple I've talked to. "Yeah, that sounds awesome" but usually with no follow through. But it was at a ski trip up north this past March that I really put it on them and sold them hard. At this point, we had created our Wedding Marquee and I had a picture to show them. She loved it, and loved it even more when I told her that we can completely customize them. Little did I know that she had chosen a Paisley print for her table number cards and invitations. After a couple meetings, happy hours, and emails, I came up with their design.

It was one of the more intricate Wed Marqs that we've done, but it was so worth it to see the look on, not only their faces, but everyone else's too, when people entered the room. I really thought that it tied everything together. It was a gorgeous room, gorgeous reception, and one heck of a party...

Congrats Danny and Lauren!

Martini's are more fun poured over ice

2010-07-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

How four girls from New York can set off a drink craze is beyond me. But that is exactly what happened when Carrie Bradshaw and the girls from Sex and the City catapulted the Cosmopolitan Martini into the national bar scene spotlight. Since the show aired in 1998, we have seen numerous new and creative flavors of martinis spring up beside the Cosmo. Some people are now even throwing themed Martini parties. Brides and grooms have also gotten in on the fun, having a signature Martini at their wedding receptions.

People have been using ice luges for shots for quite some time now, but now martinis have almost taken over as the preferred drink of choice to run down the ice. There are hundreds of possible ice sculpture luge designs out there. Possibilities are practically endless. But we do have a couple options when it comes to these elegant ice structures.

At Metro Ice Sculptures, we believe that form and function should exist in harmony with one another. Our first martini luge is in the shape of a giant martini glass. It has a funnel on each side where you pour the drinks, the drinks go down a tube that is attached to each funnel, criss cross inside the ice, and pour out towards the bottom of the sculpture. These are SO popular and we think that it is due to the interactive nature of them.

Our next luge is what we refer to as a "hunter's luge" because we designed this luge for a hunting club. It is an umbrella shaped sculpture that does not contain any funnels or tubing. It just has channels cut into the ice on the top. These are nice because they really chill the drink as they flow down the sides. Also, they have a sizable piece of ice on the front where you can display a message or a logo.

The third and final luge design isn't even a luge at all. Its actually a dispenser that holds 7 quarts of liquid. I just thought that it would be very fitting because of the whole Sex and the City theme. They come in the shape of a martini glass, much like the first luge, but we've also done some shaped like margarita glasses. It's pretty simplistic in nature. Premix your "drink" of choice, pour it into the bowl on the top, and the liquid runs through the ice in a tube and dispenses out the bottom. These are very nice because all the drinks are already pre made, so you don't have to have a bartender constantly making and pouring drinks. Also, the ice sculpture keeps the drinks pretty well chilled.

Just something for people to consider for their next party, reception of social event. Ice luges and dispensers are a great way of letting the guests interact with art, while also receiving a tasty reward. Thats all we have for this week. Keep checking back every Friday for a new post with some cool new ideas.

We can do anything...

2010-07-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

Whenever I'm out and about, meeting new people, schmoozing for business or leisure, and people ask me what I do, I usually say I'm an ice sculptor. Which I should, because I am. Its only then that the flood gates open up and the questions just start flowing. "What do you use to carve the ice?" or "How do you keep them cold?". I've heard most all of them but it never gets old. At least not yet... Then after talking with a person for a while, they usually ask one inevitable question. "So what can you do?" This gets very tricky. And maybe tricky isn't the right word, but we can literally do ANYTHING. Yeah, yeah, you can do anything? Yes, definitely.

This past December, right after Christmas, things got a little less chaotic for the company and I had a little free time to think about what I was going to do in the 2010 Winter Carnival Ice Carving Competition in St. Paul. My dad, who is also an ice sculptor, suggested that I do a bird or a bird cage. Something as simple as that turned into my single greatest professional achievement to date. From that idea, I thought that it would be cool to do a bird inside of a bird cage, or flying out of it, or sitting on top of it. I firmly believe that competition ice sculptures should tell a story. With that in mind, I started looking at different bird cages online. I found one that was hanging on a shepherd's hook and looked pretty neat. So I sketched it out, bird in a cage. Then the whole "telling a story" thing crept into my head and I now had to figure out what kind of story I wanted to tell. Natural enemy of birds? Cats... This is what we were taught growing up watching cartoons. So we'll add some cats to it. But I didn't want the cats to be on all fours, lounging around the bottom of the cage. Cats are very athletic creatures. They can jump high and climb most anything. So I put one on top of the cage, as if it had climbed up the shepherd's hook, and put another at the bottom, standing on its hind two legs. Now I wanted to have the bottom cat reaching for the birds tail that was coming out of the front of the cage. Perfect.

First Place and People's Choice Award
2010 Winter Carnival, St. Paul, MN

Now, all there was left to do was practice it a couple times and make sure that the design would work, see if we had enough ice to carve it out of and if we had enough time (5 hours start to finish). I practiced it twice the week of the competition. First time to make sure we had enough ice and the second was for timing. Had to make sure that I had enough time to finish everything. On the day of the competition, it was about 36 degrees. It was a tough day, seeing how I had practiced in my 12 degree freezer. But in the end, it turned out awesome! All of our balance points were perfect, we used a little dry ice to freeze the seams together and we finished with 5 minutes to spare. Here's a picture of the final product. We ended up winning first place in the Professional Division and won the People's Choice award. It was a great day.

So the next time someone asks me what I can, I should probably just route them to this blog. I always tell people that we are literally "limited by the imagination". Until next week...

Be cool...

Trevor Pearson

Metro Ice Sculptures

Got My Bouquet, Now What?

2010-07-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

In an ongoing quest to give brides more options for ice sculptures, we hit the drawing boards once again. In a meeting a couple of months ago, we were sitting down and thinking about every aspect of a wedding reception. Every decoration, every placement of every item, everything that the bride and groom will do, where the guests go, the "flow" of the event. One of the biggest things that we feel that there is a need for was just this...

Imagine a beautifully decorated room, every fork lined up perfectly, every glass cleaned to a sparkle, the lights are dimmed and the DJ comes on to announce the wedding party. In walk the ushers, the bridesmaids hand in hand with their groomsmen, and finally the newly married bride and groom are announced. Everyone goes to the head table to sit down and celebrate the greatest night of the bride and groom's life. So they pull out their chairs, have a seat and the bride and bridesmaids have no where to put their bouquets.

Picture this. A new and affordable way to display the bouquets, give the head table more table space, and add a totally creative way to incorporate ice into your wedding. The blocks are about 10 inches tall and can vary in their total width to accommodate the size of the head table and the number of bouquets. We can even add monograms and floral-print etchings into the front and back.

Just some more food for thought. Keep checking back for more cool stuff that we're working on.

-Trevor
Metro Ice Sculptures

Wedding Marquee

2010-07-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

If you are like me, you have had a lot of weekends taken up going to weddings. I have been to three weddings already and have three more to go to yet this year. The one thing that stands out to me of the three weddings that I have been to so far is, none of them have anything that stands out... So what do I mean? They have all been pretty traditional as far as decor go, food, music, cake, and costume. Don't get me wrong, some people like traditional and there is nothing wrong with that. But I firmly believe that people want to do something to set themselves apart from their friends or other weddings that they've been to. People take little tidbits from weddings to create their perfect day. But its all been done before, and that is why their weddings are fairly traditional.

This is an ice sculpture blog, and there is something that I'm going to pitch, right? I mean, I am NOT a wedding expert. I am an expert in ice. A lot of people, when they hear of ice carvings, think of swans, dolphins, and hearts. More "traditional" ice sculptures. And again, that's fine for people. But these are the same ice sculptures that our parents could have possibly gotten at their weddings years ago. Not much has changed in the way of ice sculptures until a couple years ago. Ice sculptors have finally caught up with technology. Dean Carlson from Florida has created a CNC machine for ice. This now allows chiselers the ability to come up with new designs that are both intricate and precise. So, with that technology and the urge to redefine what a wedding sculpture should be, Metro Ice Sculptures designed the Wedding Marquee.

We have seen vast improvements in design technology over the past years and websites like TheKnot.com have opened the doors to hot trends in wedding fashion, invitations, cakes, and most every other facet of a wedding. How do we capitalize on these trends, help brides and grooms set their wedding apart, and set our company apart? Well, we had to pick out certain elements of design that we wanted to incorporate into the Marquee. We'll be showing you the step-by-step process of how we create our Marquees. First and foremost, we want to display the names of the bride and groom, or in this case, their monogram. We recently did a Marquee for some customers, Aaron and Alexis G. They sent us their monogram and imported it into our design program. Then we started the design layout. Next, the color schemes were put together. Aaron and Alexis chose a candy apple green and a chocolate colored brown, so we added those colors to the monogram.

After we have the names (or monogram in this case) in our design, we next take some of those trendy graphic design elements and put them into our layout. Now, there are a LOT of trendy design elements to choose from. You can find them on Google or hire a graphic designer to create one for you. I searched "floral pattern" and found some pretty cool and basic designs. One thing we want to create in our sculptures is depth. So, what we do, is put one floral pattern on the back and another on the front. The one on back is going to be colored, while the pattern on the front is snow-filled (white). As you can see, we added the floral designs.

The final part of the sculpture is optional. We offer two types of Wedding Marquees, a free-standing sculpture and one that sits on a base. The free-standing sculpture stands in a short tray. We have been experimenting with this design using it as a backdrop for place setting cards. The Marquee with the base stands more as a focal point for the room. Our customers have put them on their wedding cake tables, next to the bar, or on a table by itself. Now, you'll have to excuse the bad picture, but we are still waiting for the good pictures to come in.

We just wanted to give ice sculptures a facelift. They aren't your mother's ice carvings. If you or your friends are getting married, at least consider a Wedding Marquee. It will distinguish you from your other friends that are getting married. It is a totally personable addition to the greatest day of your life.

Below is an example of the free-standing Wedding Marquee. As far as the other stuff on our trade show table, well, we'll save that for another day.