Expert tips to take your sand sculptures to the next level
Professional sand sculptors share their best tips and tricks.
Most of us are never going to become professional sand sculptors, but that doesn't mean we have to settle for artistic mediocrity during our days at the beach. It's time to add some architecture to your sandcastles and some artistry to your sand sculptures. Get ambitious! Go big!
Here are some tips, from two of the personalities featured on CBC's upcoming sand sculpture competitions show Race Against the Tide, to help you take your sand sculpture game to the next level.
Get a big bucket
Professional sand sculptors use wooden forms to create a solid brick of wet, compacted sand, and then carve their designs out from there. Amateurs probably won't have access to those massive wooden forms, but they can apply the same principle on a smaller scale.
"Take a bucket, like a big five-gallon bucket, and cut the bottom out of it," says Race Against the Tide judge Karen Fralich. "Fill it up with sand in layers, like about six inches, and then a bunch of water, then stomp it down with your feet, then more water, more sand."
The result will be the same sort of compacted brick.
The wetter, the better
Don't be shy about wetting your sand, says Fralich. Dry sand is literally impossible to sculpt, so if anything, it's better to err on the side of being too wet.
"Just make sure you use a lot of water," she says "That's the key. It shouldn't be dry."
Get creative with your tools
"My most important and core tool is a margin trowel," says Fralich. "It's something that you'd use for drywall. It's my everything tool. It's always in my hand, I'm always using it. It can do so many things. That's definitely the one I can't live without."
She suggests that, in that same spirit, amateur sandcastle builders looking to up their game should look around the house for potential sculpting tools.
"Bring anything from the kitchen or the workshop," she says. "Trowels, forks, knives, spoons, anything you can think of that you might want to try, and just dig at it and play with it and see what you can make and what inspires you."
Spell it out
Race Against the Tide contestant Gord Bakaluk says that amateur sand sculptors who really want to take their creation to the next level should consider adding some lettering (carved out of sand, naturally) to finish off their sculpture.
"Come up with a caption that's either witty or catchy, that ties into your creation," he says. "You can make the letters as simple or complex as you'd like."
Now that you're armed with our top tips and your sand sculpting tools, it's time to hit the beach and let your creativity run wild!
Watch Race Against the Tide, premiering Thursday, September 9 at 8 and 8:30 p.m. (8:30 and 9 NT) on CBC and CBC Gem.