This was an amazing project to be involved in.  Here is what happened.  Chris from Ice Krystals called me Tuesday around 11:00 to see if I was available to help out on a large project.  The catch was that It was in D.C. & it started the following day.  Well,  I packed up my tools & clothes & headed East arriving around midnight.  We had a few phone meeetings along the drive & Chris booked me into a nice hotel nearby.  On Wednesday I arrived at their studio at 9:00 & set up my tools.  Chris had been up late discussing the design with the client which was finally approved at 9:06 Wednesday morning.

Chris & I had a quick production meeting & we went straight to work.  While I was in the freezer finishing, shaping & detailing, Chris & Ricky were working out all of the logistic details.  And boy were there a lot of details to work out!  In addition to many other things, they managed to- program the CNC, organize the labor to package & deliver the carving, pre-assemble the drainage, work out some labor hiccups, and tear down details.  This all went on Wednesday & Thursday.

The timeline was set.  Since the truck had to be security scanned by 1:45 pm Friday, we had to have the carving finished and packaged for a 12:15 leave time.  No problem we had the above done by 12:07!  The truck had to be scanned at one location & sniffed by dogs at another location.  At 5:00 we moved all of the ice from the freezer truck to a staging area near the setup site.

At 7:00 (no make that 7:25, of course they were running behind) the guests were directed into an auditorium to see a Russian themed movie.  Then the crew of 14 jumped into action rolling out the red carpet, setting up the stage, & installing the drip pans.  Go, go, go & the whole sculpture was set-up in 1 hour 10 minutes.  We delivered it in 72 seperate pieces (the largest piece, the onion dome was made from 4.5 blocks).  I made it home by 3:15am Sat morning.

My hat goes off to Chris & Ricky, they pulled off an amazing project that many might consider impossible.  They and their staff were great to work with.

Follow this Link to see more photos and a walk around video.

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