I hate sandcastles! There, I said it. It is probably strange coming from someone who works a lot with sand but I really don't see the point of them. Why in Gods name did they become a thing? Who was the first one to sit on a beach and decide that making a castle from sand would be a good idea? Hear me out. There is a world of possibilities when it comes to sand. It can be fashioned into nearly any form, the sky is the limit and yet the favourite past time is to make a medieval castle which will never look as interesting as the work put into it should justify. To be honest, they are just the most difficult things to make look good in sand. and even with all my years of working in this material mine still look crap. Maybe it is my inadequacy or I'm missing something fulfilling about them but, they just leave me cold. Sorry to all the budding sand architects out there of all ages but they are just not my cup of tea.
Every now and again I will be asked to make one and I cringe. I try to convince the asker to let me do something else, anything else but, invariably they get their way. It's like asking a musician to make some elevator music. I'll do it but I know neither I nor the client will be entirely happy.
With all that rant said I do know of some amazing sandcastle builders but they are the ones who bring life to the genre where the castle is a backdrop to a bigger concept and they are anally retentive enough to pull it all off.
Building your castles on sand
This is one I had to make for a photoshoot. It is an embarrassment for me to even show it but when I started this blog I vowed to document every sand project that ever I did and although it may be painful at times for me and my audience I am going to do it. What follows may seem like excuses to how I ended up with this but it is the story and I'm sticking by it.
I started building as the sun started to rise, I knew I wanted to make the best sandcastle ever and wanted to give my self around 6 hours before the photo shoot was to happen. All was going really well, I had several Turrets, an internal city and draw bridge crossing a moot, all the bells and whistles. This was perched on top of a mountain that stood over a meter and a half tall. I was actually quite proud of it and as the photographers and models arrived for the shoot I just had to remove the last Form* from the bottom and carve the mountain to the ground. The client was happy and I was fawned over by the models. This was twenty minutes before my deadline. So I removed the last form and of course, the whole sculpture collapsed into a pile of dust. All my morning work dissolved to a pile of embarrassment. Bollox ! (The Irish word for these situations). Of course, I have no photos to show how it looked, You'll just have to take my word for it that it looked pretty cool.
With the twenty minutes left I tried as best I could to recarve the sand I had left into this monstrosity. I really hate sandcastles.
*Sand Forms are like cake tins that you compact the sand into to give you a big, more solid block to carve from.
Saving grace
Luckily the models were pretty enough to salvage the photoshoot and even on the dreary Irish summers day, the shoot went well.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Evolution abridged - sand sculpture
To the moon via the beach (The Moon) - sand sculpture
To the moon via the beach ( The Beach) - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite
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Sorry, I really lol-ed... :D But it was a good story! :)
Thanks Ackhoo. It's a true story one which I had to tell to make up for such a bad sculpture.
!ENGAGE15
ENGAGEtokens.Haha I love your honesty. Sometimes it feels good to admit that something is just not your cup of tea. And that's ok
There have been many ups and downs along the way of making sculptures and the failings have thought me the most. Honest reflection on the Hows and the Whys are what helps me get better. I like to honour all experiences, good and bad in my posts.
Thanks for reading (how do you find the time‽)
!ENGAGE15
I always make time for my Hive friends' posts😁
ENGAGEtokens.You hate sand castles because they're so easy to make for you! haha.
I've seen your blog, your work is incredible. I did not hesitate to follow you.
Regards from Argentina.
Thank you very much @lauramica. To be truly honest, I find them the most challenging thing to make because I really don't enjoy carving them. But, as with all work sometimes you have to just do the job. Thanks for the follow and a big Hi from Ireland.
!ENGAGE15
ENGAGEtokens.Ahh the perils of working with sand XD
We've made various things in sand, there is inevitably a sand castle when we go to the beach but it's more of an exercise in urban planning than anything else XP
And your hated sandcastle turned out pretty cute after all that XD
The first Sandcastle looked pretty nice but I conveniently have no evidence of it. I love to see anyone working with sand but just think they should broaden their horizons. The joy is in the making and I think there is more joy making anything else.
!ENGAGE15
ENGAGEtokens.Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know every user has their own profile map?
And so does every post as well!
Want to have your post on the map too?
beautiful work, I was amazed.
the tower above looks a little tilted, i don't know if it's epek camera or my sight. but I admit it is a very difficult job.