Birds and fishes (What happens when it rains) - sand sculpture

' What happens when it rains?' The most common question I get asked while I am sand sculpting. My answer is usually the same, like some sort of rehearsed retort 'Not much really the sand is so compact that the water just flows over the surface and doesn't cause much damage. It does dapple the surface a bit but that is something I can easily fix, when I do finish carving I spray the sculpture with a very dilute PVA/ kids glue and that protects the details from drying out and blowing away, it also protects it a bit from the rain' This back and forth can happen tens of times a day on a busy project and so I'm sure you can understand my response but for you, my loyal readers I can tell you what really happens.

This was a project I worked on in Korsor, Denmark with a group of four other carvers. Kirke from Estonia, Sandis from Latvia, Enguarand from Belgium and Kirsten, the ring leading organiser from Denmark.

The weather was very changeable going from moments of wonderful to horrible within a matter of minutes. One moment I was in a tea shirt, the next a coat or rain jacket. I really hate this sort of weather as having to change all the time breaks the flow in work.

There were two compactions of sand, these are the standard way of preparing the sand for carving. Using lots of water and mechanical whackers we compact the sand into these wooden forms. These forms allow us to make very tall structures and double as ladders so we can climb to the top, then the sculpture is made from the top down removing the wood as we go. The compacting gives us a very solid block to work from like a soft sandstone.

Having five people work on these two structures meant that it was a bit crowded at first so I held back and let the others go at it while I tried to think what I could bring to the equation.

The others started by carving each pile into birds and fish and once I started seeing what they were doing I began to create some sort of abstracted net like form in the middle joining the two together. To me this was an obvious connector as you can use it to catch both birds or fish and bring them to land. I think it was around this time in my sand sculpting career that I started to just listen to the voice in my head and make whatever it told me to make. I seemed to be starting to let my ideas be what I made and not just try to make something to please the audience. Maybe they would like it, maybe not but I began to try and make things for me. I think that as an artist you have to be a bit ego-centric or you will never find your inner voice. But, this post isn't about developing as an artist this is about 'What happens when it rains?'

The calm before the storm

About half way through the project we took an afternoon off and went for a little trip to see the local sites. This included going out in a boat to sea to see the Storebæltsbroen a massive multi element bridge tunnel structure that connects Zealand to Funen This allows road navigation all the way to copenhagen from Europe. It was nice to be joined by our good friend Bruno Macdonald a sculptor who lives on Funen and we all had a wonderful aftenoon. But this post isn't about that either, it is about 'What happens when it rains'

So, what does happen when it rains?

While on our little boat trip the heavens opened and it was some of the heaviest rain I had ever seen. It was like the air and sea became one as the clouds dumped their heavy load. To be honest it was scary being in a boat in this and our captain found it difficult to keep sight of where we were headed

And just like that it was over. The clouds parted and all was good again. We were all a bit anxious to get back on wet land and see how our sculpture fared.

Actually it wasn't too bad. Yes, the surface was completely ruined but you can see from the picture that the structure still stood and even the parts that were finished and had been sprayed with the 'Screen' as we call the PVA in the industry did some kind of job protecting the surface.

By the by, those little wires sticking out the top are to stop birds landing on the sculpture, A heavy seagull can make a balls of things.

Of course lower down where the water from above turned to little rivers flowing over the surface the damage was more intense and the natural slit or clay in the sand which is usually the thing that binds all the sand grains together had turned to mud and melted creating beautiful textures as it dribbled down.

where to from here?

I really liked things the way they were. Nature can be an amazing sculptor but for Kirsten she really wanted to have everything finished just like before and so we spent a day getting things back to the way they were and then finished off the rest of our work

I think the whole thing came together quite nicely, the different forms seemed to compliment each other and it really seemed to be reaching for the sky. The rain hit once or twice more but not as heavily and so we had an easy time finishing up.

I liked my little element in the middle. Although most would not get what it represented I liked the fact that it was something but not really anything that took away from the two sides and it helped bring everything into one composition.

No,but, really, What happens when it rains?

Not much really, it can be a pain in the arse but given the right sand it is never much of an issue. Sand with lots of Slit or clay can melt and soften the structure but very clean sand can let it just pass straight through. In all my years as a sand sculptor (putting on a older voice) it has never been something that I can't come back from and to be honest having to deal with this natural element encourages creativity.

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Ps

Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.

Jinny Joe - sand sculpture

Perpetual Evolution - ice sculpture

Disjointed - ice sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite

[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 55.332908 lat 11.136484 long Birds and fishes (what happens when it rains) - sand sculpture 2006 d3scr)