William Rose may be the only employee on campus looking forward to Michigan's winter weather. While the rest of us reluctantly pack away our golf clubs and gardening gear, the season for Rose's hobby — ice carving and sculpture — is just starting to "heat" up.
Rose, a cook and stockkeeper in Hoyt Conference Center, is quickly moving up the ranks in the professional class of the National Ice Carving Association (NICA). In 2003, he earned a bronze medal at an NICA competition in Frankenmuth, Mich., in February and was invited to the national competition in Illinois in 2004.
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ICE DRAGON: William Rose (right), a cook and
stock keeper in Hoyt Conference Center, and
EMU graduate Dave Kurth pose with one of their
ice sculptures, a dragon that placed third in a
National Ice Carving Association (NICA)
competition in Frankenmuth in February.
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Rose also advises EMU's Student Ice Sculpting Team. The team won a bronze medal in the student division of the Frankenmuth competition. They also placed ninth in a national collegiate ice-carving competition.
Rose first became interested in ice carving while he was a student at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn. He took an ice carving class there and continued the hobby when he started working for Dining Services.
Contrary to popular belief, Rose said you don't have to be a cook to be involved in ice sculpting, although many of the sport's devotees are. Having access to huge blocks of ice and freezers to store it in, like Rose does at Hoyt, is often the only way ice sculptors can practice.
"I could not do this without the support of Dining Services," Rose said. "They are major contributors to the team."
And, yes, ice carvers and sculptors do consider it a sport.
"People think that ice carvers create sculptures for dinners and special events, and go to fairs or weekend festivals for fun," Rose said. "But these are NICA professional or amateur events, and we are competing against those other teams. There are a lot of rules and regulations to follow, and we must follow them or be disqualified."
For example, the team has to create a sculpture out of four blocks of ice that each measure 22" x 44" x 10" thick. The ice blocks are frozen slowly over four days while the purified water is still moving. The ice is then harvested, trimmed, boxed and kept frozen before it is sculpted. Classicial, three-dimensional ice sculptures are hand-sculptured from one solid piece of ice with chainsaws, chisels and die grinders.
And the team only has six hours to create a masterpiece. In that amount of time, the team created a "crowd-pleasing" dragon at Frankenmuth, Rose said.
"It always is a learning experience every time you compete," Rose said.
Although it is cold and wet work, Rose intends to continue competing professionally.
"I played competitive hockey until I was 19," he said. "My first ice sculpture was of a hockey player. Doing this fulfills my competitive spirit."
