Ernie DiMartino, president of DiMartino Ice Company, has been carving ice for decades. Submitted Photo

The process of sculpting the ice displayed at Butler’s Carved In Ice on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9 and 10, requires the artist to envision their goal and eliminate any ice that isn’t needed.

Ernie DiMartino, president of DiMartino Ice Company, has been carving ice for decades, and said creating art out of blocks of ice requires a lot of attention to detail and the ability to think in three dimensions.

“It's an eliminating process. It's not like you can add a nose or an arm, you have to be able to see it inside the ice and take away everything else that doesn't belong,” said DiMartino, the son of the company’s founder. “I would never notice the small details in life, but once someone asks you to carve a fire hydrant, you have to really look at a fire hydrant.”

The Butler-based ice festival, an annual event organized by the Butler AM Rotary Club, will feature more than 60 ice carvings at Diamond Park. The sculptures are made from a about 100 blocks of ice.

Companies and organizations from around the region buy ice blocks ahead of time, according to Peggy Weckerly, sales chairwoman for the festival, and DiMartino’s ice carvers create sculptures based on the purchasing agencies.

DiMartino Ice not only supplies ice carvers who create the sculptures for the event, but the company also creates the ice blocks themselves which are used for carving. According to DiMartino, the blocks go through a long journey to be optimal for carving for ice festival events. The company uses machines that create 10-by-20-by-40-inch blocks that are made of pure water to be crystal clear.

“Each machine has two canisters in it … and it takes a crane to pull it out of the canister,” DiMartino said. “It's frozen while the water is circulating. There's pumps that we keep in the water to keep it circulating and only the purest of water freezes … from the bottom up.”

After four days in the machine, the ice’s temperature drops down to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point, the company can harvest 24 blocks per machine. The freezers at the DiMartino headquarters actually warm the ice up to about 22 degrees for carving.

DiMartino said the ice is cut and sealed together for the appropriate size, and transported to where they need to be via “freezer trucks.” DiMartino Ice Company has three ice carvers, and it contracts additional employees when needed for an event.

It takes a certain person to become an ice carver, DiMartino said.

“It's a labor of love; it's a lot of hard work. You're in bad elements,” DiMartino said. “When we are carving, the windchill could go down to about zero. It takes a different person to be an ice carver.”

DiMartino said he was not much of an artist while in school. He recalled one of his art teachers telling him he had no artistic talent. Becoming an ice carver changed his life, he said, and he still enjoys creating ice at events around the region.

“More recently, people are discovering that there's more to art than just drawing,” DiMartino said. “Ice, it brings joy to people, and it feels good to bring joy to a community.”