We recently caught ice carvers in action at the
Plymouth (Michigan) Ice Spectacular.
Some carvers worked solo, while other carvers worked
in teams to complete the crystalline creations on display in Plymouth’s Kellogg
Park during the annual ice carving festival.
Check out the full story of our visit to the Ice
Spectacular to learn more about the art of ice carving and to see a few more
photos of the carvers and their work.
Related stories:
Cool carvings at Plymouth Ice Spectacular
Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.
© Dominique King 2009
Lovely! Your pictures always remind me of my childhood because I grew up in Michigan until I was in 6th grade. ;)
Posted by: soultravelers | January 30, 2009 at 06:13 AM
Wow! that's amazing work!
Posted by: Peter Carey | January 30, 2009 at 08:25 AM
Wow, these are great photos. It's been a long time since I saw ice carving - possibly because I bundle up inside for most of the winter ;)
Posted by: DeliciousBaby | January 30, 2009 at 09:03 AM
Thanks for sharing this! Please check out my post on the Ferndale Ice Festival, another great event. (Though it was COLD! this year!!) I guess that's to be expected at an ice festival. I am glad to see that people are attempting to make the best of the cold weather here in Michigan!
http://www.urbaneapts.com/urbanereflections-blog/?p=650
Posted by: Brandon | January 30, 2009 at 09:03 AM
That looks like some serious fun! Will you be entering the competition next year? :)
Posted by: Angela Nickerson | January 30, 2009 at 09:53 AM
I love that giraffe! I wish my kids could see this - they would definitely enjoy it.
Posted by: Motherofalltrips | January 30, 2009 at 01:37 PM
That is so cool! The only time I have seen this up close and personal was on a cruise and it was nothing as extravagant as that!
Posted by: Jen | January 30, 2009 at 03:57 PM
Soultravlers3-The Ice Spectacular is a great time for kids :)
Peter-It was pretty amazing to watch the carvers at work. Thanks for stopping by.
Debbie-This was the first time we'd gone to this festival during the day (we usually cruised by at night after hockey games in Plymouth). The hand warmers really did help!
Brandon-It was cold, cold, cold in Plymouth, too. Ferndale's fest looked like fun as well. We seem to end up out by Plymouth because we invariably have at least one game out there over the Ice Spectacular weekend.
I remember Royal Oak trying an ice fest some years back. The weather was so warm, that it was pretty much a bust and they didn't try it again. Even as cold as it was this time out in Plymouth, the sunshine cause a few melting problems with some of the sculptures Saturday. When we were out there Sunday, it was overcast--not as nice for taking photos, but nothing was melting that day!
Angela-Me? And chainsaws? I don't think so! I certainly admire the folks who do such a good job with these carvings.
Motherofalltrips-I liked the giraffe photo because it was one of the few I got that day that really showed much of the carving detail--even as I had to contend with the crowds while trying to get decent photos. They had a lot of animal carvings that I think kids would particularly enjoy seeing.
Posted by: Dominique | January 30, 2009 at 04:00 PM
Awesome, I don't get to see a lot of ice sculpting here in California.
My son would've loved to see them sculpting in action.
Posted by: Carolina | January 30, 2009 at 05:50 PM
Jen-Seeing so many sculptures in one place really was pretty cool. A lot of the carvers were students from a nearby community college with a culinary arts program.
Carolina-It was a lot of fun watching the carvers in action. Pretty fascinating to see how easily they wielded those chain saws!
Posted by: Dominique | January 30, 2009 at 06:10 PM