Joliet Junior College student carves career path in pastry and ice

There’s something almost magical about watching Joliet Junior College pastry student Nalia Warmack transform a block of ice into a figure with a personality.

Videos of Warmack in action show her gracefully easing around the ice with a chainsaw, ice shavings flying high while she shapes, chisels and planes.

Her creations include an elephant bust, Easter bunny, moose, pelican, goat, mother duck and duckling, a 5-foot tall giraffe, a little girl nuzzling and petting her pony, and a one-piece sculpture of a girl in raincoat and boots holding an umbrella and feeding a goose.

That last creation earned Warmack first place at the Fire and Ice Winter Festival in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, in mid-February.

“Honestly, I think I’ve always been a hands-on person, so it just kind of came naturally to some extent,” Warmack said.

Although she’s still a student, Warmack said she already is getting paid for her talents. She works as an independent contractor, creating carvings and demonstrating ice carving techniques, such as the demos she did at last year’s “Light up the Holidays Parade & Festival” in downtown Joliet.

Michael McGreal, chairman of JJC’s culinary arts department and an ice carving professor, said Warmack has completed some “wonderful and very complex ice carvings” and could pursue a full-time career in ice carving if she wished. She doesn’t – pastry is her first love – but Warmack said she feels both talents marry well.

“If I do a wedding cake and a pastry table [for a couple], I could throw in an ice sculpture.”

McGreal said Warmack’s ice sculpture of a teddy bear standing on a pedestal surrounded by blocks with letters and numbers on them, would be perfect for gender reveal parties. The one Warmack fashioned had a light bulb beneath it, which would light the ice “pink” or “blue” when reveal time arrived, he said.

Warmack could charge upward of $600 for that carving, McGreal said. “And she made it in two hours.”

[ 400-pound ice carvings honor frontline angels ]

Warmack, who also works at JJC as a lab assistant for a pastry class, said she initially signed up for an ice carving class in spring 2020. But she didn’t get very far when JJC paused in-person learning because of the pandemic.

So McGreal suggested she return in fall 2021, which she did – and then again for spring 2022.

McGreal said Warmack is a natural with the chainsaw and shapes the ice as she might when making a gingerbread house. Often, she would bring him a sketch on a piece of paper and ask what he thought.

“You could see her brain clicked into the analytical part of the design,” McGreal said.

Like any business, ice carving comes with some costs. McGreal said ice carving tools cost about $400. A machine to make ice blocks costs several thousand dollars or more, depending on the scope of the machine, but that’s better than paying for each block individually, which varies in price depending on the company, he said.

But the cost of the ice with the ice machine is about $1 a block, McGreal said.

While the startup costs may sound high, ice sculptors are paid well for their talents. Sculptures can range from $350 to more than $1,000 per piece, depending on size and intricacy of design, McGreal said. A savvy ice sculptor potentially could make several thousand dollars for less than a day’s work he said.

But it’s not necessarily easy money.

“An ice carving only last so long. It’s a very special and intimate art piece.”

—  Nalia Warmack, Joliet Junior College culinary arts student

Warmack said full-time ice sculpting is hard on the arms and knees. The chainsaw weighs 15 pounds and the ice blocks Warmack uses weigh 300 pounds each and are “extremely dangerous” to lift, she said.

“We move the full blocks in and out of the freezer and onto platforms. It’s a lot of lifting,” Warmack said. “And we’re sawing off hunks that fall.”

Nevertheless, the results are stunning and unlike other forms of artwork, she said. For instance, a painting, once completed, can be sold or hung on a wall for people to look at forever. Not so with ice sculptures.

“An ice carving only last so long,” Warmack said. “It’s a very special and intimate art piece. Not to mention that being able to zone out with your power tools is really nice.”

Contact Warmack at iceboxsculpting@gmail.com.