Ice Ice, Baby.

If you've got an injury, yo! They'll solve it! Check out PT Solutions and their awesome physical therapists!

I love music. And I'm from the 90's. What can I say? ;)

I love ice carving to my core, don't get me wrong, but it is physically demanding. Being a petite woman, using a chainsaw as my weapon of choice (weighing in at 18 pounds by itself) and shuffling around full blocks and carvings that weigh up to 300 pounds presents some physically straining challenges, for sure.

Adding to the fact that I dislocated my shoulder while working as a cake decorator almost a year ago certainly didn't make things easier. What did, however, was going to see Kelly Sekhon, PT, DPT, CSCS at PT Solutions in Bolingbrook, IL.

With my super busy schedule at the time, she was still able to get my shoulder feeling better and ready to start my ice carving ventures last fall. With repeat use and getting hired as a part time ice carver with Nadeau's Ice Sculptures, I wound up going right back to PT Solutions to maintain, strengthen, and build stamina for my ambitious plans of carving last winter.

As time has gone by, I have fallen in love with ice carving even more, and don't see myself stopping any time soon. And for that reason, I'm SO GRATEFUL to have physical therapists like the ones at PT Solutions to help me along the way!

As you all know if you've been reading these posts, I've been carving small pieces at home to keep up my skills during these crazy shutdown times with ice that Nadeau's has been generous enough to donate to me to practice on. Now that I have the kinks in my freezer situation at home worked out, I am ready to share my ice with the world instead of it melting away in my front yard! :) Of course, one of the first businesses I thought of was PT Solutions to share an ice carving with!

The one thing that I always need for my physical therapy visits is my tennis shoes, of course! Kelly also just so happens to be a runner, so that made it even more appropriate! I added some laces to give it just the right look. Here's the picture I took before it went back into the freezer.

It's really nice to be able to actually take a picture of it fresh out of the freezer when it is still frosty like the one below at their office, the details and shape are a little easier to make out when it's not dripping with water!

A big THANK YOU! goes out to all of the physical therapists at PT Solutions for their stellar work both before the quarantine and consistently as they adjusted their methods to working with masks and sanitizing everything constantly for our safety. And, a big THANK YOU! to all of the rest of the healthcare and essential workers that have been masking up and supporting our communities through these times.

Here is Kelly, she was so excited to get to see the finished carving in person instead of just pictures of my work over the last few months while being her patient.

And as always, a big THANK YOU! goes to the lovely people at Nadeau's Ice Sculptures for facilitating my ice efforts. I literally couldn't do it without you.

And THANK YOU! to my cousin Dalia who ended up coming over to help me move the solid blocks into the freezer last minute when my plans had changed. Nothing like moving four 100 pound slippery and wet chunks of ice from the car to be placed strategically in a freezer, am I right Dalia?! :)

Although I wasn't able to line up takers for the other carvings I made last week before they melted, I was of course able to take some pictures and videos of the process along the way. The videos will be uploaded to the video gallery at the top of this page soon!

I'm working on refining shapes on these smaller carvings. If you know anything about 3D art, you know that the smaller the piece is, the more challenging it can be. These carvings are 1/4 the size of the blocks that I am used to carving. And I'm carving in a garage in the summer that gets near 90 degrees so the ice melts super fast. Added variables like this keep things exciting for sure, but once I'm back to carving full blocks this winter I'll be grateful for the experience!

Polar bear, geometric dog, and a groovy owl were the other pieces I worked on.

Whether you're an artist with a chainsaw and a vision or a physical therapy patient with an injury, you'll want the same thing: ice ice, baby! ;)