Swimmers climb out of a pool carved into the thick ice covering the Songhua River during the Harbin Ice Swimming Competition in the northern city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province January 5, 2014. According to organisers, about 700 swimmers across China took part in the event on the official launch day of the Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Workers polish a snow sculpture ahead of the 16th Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, December 22, 2014. The 16th Harbin Ice and Snow World will be officially opened on January 5, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Workers carve ice art works at Harbin Ice and Snow World one day before the 32th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin city, China's northern Heilongjiang province, 04 January 2016. The festival will run from 05 January to 05 February. (Photo by Wu Hong/EPA)

Artist Robert Mickelson is an expert sculptor whose medium of choice happens to be glass. There's something so pure and serene about glass. Perhaps it's the material's transparency coupled with its fragility. Whatever it may be, Mickelson knows how to accentuate the element's most appealing qualities. Each of his life-like sculptural pieces exude realism with a refined quality.

A life-size sculpture of a pianist, made of approximately 210,000 matches and weighs around 100 kilograms, is seen in Tomislav Horvat's studio in Podturen, Croatia, October 27, 2016. For the last ten years, Horvat has built sculptures made from matches. This is his biggest sculpture to date that took him some 30 months to build. (Photo by Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

Visitors walk past a train-shaped ice sculpture ahead of the 31st Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in the northern city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, January 4, 2015. The winter festival will be officially opened on January 5, 2015. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Vendors selling candied haws wait for customers at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, China, January 4, 2016. The festival is open from Jan. 5 till Feb. 5, 2016, and is aimed at attracting both foreign and local visitors to experience the beauty of the ice and snow. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

Visitors view ice sculptures at the 29th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival on January 5, 2013. (Photo by Associated Press)