When Bob Roberts quit his job as a sous-chef for the Hyatt Hotels and decided to pursue his true passion in life, even his closest friends didn't try to hide their disbelief.
"People said, 'What? You're gonna make ice sculptures? You got to be kidding me,' " Roberts said with a chuckle.
That was 22 years ago. Roberts has been in the ice sculpting business since 1988, and has been sculpting all his orders himself from his Bowie garage since 1996. Since he started his business, Hot Ice Inc., and began professionally carving, he's carved sculptures for the sets of the television show "The Wire," as well as for the movie sets of "National Treasure 2" and "For Richer or Poorer."
On one oppressively muggy day this summer, Roberts worked on carving a large Prada shoe for a woman's 40th birthday party.
"One of the things I love about my job is people appreciate it so much. This woman loves shoes, and when she sees that ice sculpture she's going to say, 'Wow it's incredible' and I get to be a part of that. There's nothing like being appreciated."
Though it's the middle of the summer and demand for ice sculptures has waned, Roberts still receives at least 10 requests a week. Despite the heat, he continues to work from his garage.
"Summertime I have to work a lot quicker, and I'll put the blocks in and out of the freezer. If [the ice] gets too soft, I'll put it away, pull something else out," he said.
On average, he carves about 10 to 20 ice sculptures a month, closer to 20 during his peak months, such as May and June when he sculpts for graduation parties and weddings, and closer to 10 during his slower months in midsummer.
"We stay real busy," he said as he finished up the Prada shoe. It is about 90 degrees and humid, but Roberts has eight ice sculptures to carve by the weekend.
Roberts carves to the accompaniment jazz music, and he's full of knowledge about ice, from the type of ice you need for carving — one with no air bubbles — to how thin you can carve a piece of ice before it breaks.
He'll yell out a few quick tips over the roar of his chainsaw as he carves — the importance of letting ice "temper" before carving, for example. "Tempering" simply means letting the ice melt a bit before taking out the chisels and saws.
Though he hasn't competed in more than 10 years, Roberts used to attend ice sculpting competitions, at one point placing 12th in the National Ice Carving Competition.
Roberts said that business was a little slow in 2009 because of the recession, but he's been seeing a rebound this year.
"I think people are starting to be a little more positive," he said. "People always get married. No one's gonna remember the food two years later, no one's gonna remember what the flowers looked like, but I promise you you'll remember the beautiful ice sculpture."
Roberts said that "his body just isn't what it used to be", and that "ice sculpting is an incredibly physically demanding job". At age 51, Roberts has arthritis in both hands, and he often suffers from tendonitis after wielding the power tools he uses to cut the ice. He has hired a couple of people to transport the sculptures from his garage to their destinations, and he is training an apprentice, Freddie Peters. Peters helps Roberts move the blocks in and out of the freezer and drives the sculptures to venues. However, he hasn't learned to sculpt yet.
"I've yet to get a chainsaw in this guy's hand," Roberts said.
Peters, a senior at Towson University, has been working as a "righthand man" to Roberts for about three years.
"I never even heard about ice sculpting before, but this all just happened, and I fell into probably one of the greatest things I could have," Peters said.
Roberts concedes that his business might not be lucrative, but he says it can be a fulfilling career nonetheless.
"I'm not turning into a millionaire, I don't want to be the ice king," he said. "I live for people appreciating my ice sculptures. I don't know why; it just makes me happy."