Ice man cometh with deep-freeze sculpting.

AFTER almost two decades in the ice-sculpting business, Rex Covington, wrier of LA Ice Art, still loves his job, which involves carving ice, delivering it and setting up the display. He even hopes one day to build his own "ice house" (an ice-making facility) because sometimes there's there's just not enough ice in Los Angeles for him.

"Eighteen years ago I was a waiter in Beverly Hills. The chef was looking for someone to do ice sculpting. I volunteered and I started getting good at it. Finally, someone approached me and asked me to do a wedding and it just sort of took off by itself. I did have an art background from San Diego State, so that helped. Now, I'm pretty much busy all the time.

"A one-block sculpture, 4 feet tall, 2 feet wide, would cost $200. Two blocks usually would be $350 or $375 depending if it was in two pieces or one. Big ice sculptures, like ice bars with intricate work, could go as high as $3,000.

"An average one-block sculpture might take an hour to make. A big scale ice block might take four days. Taking out the cost of the ice block and the time of the delivery, I usually net in the neighborhood of $50,000 per year. My business has been expanding recently because of the ice bar.

"The ice bar--for a bartender to stand behind--started about eight years ago. I wasn't really prepared for it. My specialty was sculptures, things requiring more skill, like an angel, or Pegasus. Then about a year ago, I designed and built my own pedestals for large-scale ice sculptures. I was able to utilize my artistic edge and apply that to the ice bar. Since then, I've probably expanded my business about 10 percent.

"I've been pretty lucky, I've had good exposure. My average client would be a wedding or a brunch but I also get lots of work from caterers and I've gotten a lot of work from film and TV. It's kind of funny because one of my most well-known sculptors is this big ice penguin 1 did for a Cheetos commercial. They're still showing it every day.

"If I get a really big job or there's a lot of business at the same time, then the ice houses can't keep up with the demand. That's one of the reasons I want to build my own ice house. I think it would be better for me in the long run. I would need a big freezer and then I would need some of the machines that make these big square blocks."