Lucinda Wierenga - Sandcastles Made Simple: Step-by-Step Instructions, Tips, and Tricks for Building Sensational Sand Creations

Text copyright 2005 Lucinda Wierenga

Photographs copyright 2005 Jamey Fountain, except the following:
: photographs copyright 2005 Fred Mallett
: photographs copyright 2005 Lucinda Wierenga
(bottom): photographs copyright 2005 Amazin Walter

Front cover photograph by Fred Mallett

Back cover photographs by Jamey Fountain

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Published in 2005 by Abrams

Canadian Distribution:

Canadian Manda Group

One Atlantic Avenue, Suite 105

Toronto, Ontario M6K 3E7

Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wierenga, Lucinda.

Sandcastles made simple: step-by-step instructions, tips, and tricks for building sensational sand creations / by Lucinda sandy feet Wierenga ; photographs by Jamey Fountain.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-58479-408-9
eISBN 978-1-68335-726-1

1. Sand craft. 2. Sandcastles. 3. Sand sculpture. I. Title.

TT865.W57 2005

736'.96dc22 2004023801

Designed by Nancy Leonard

ABRAMS The Art of Books
195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007
abramsbooks.com

Many thanks to Jennifer Lang, Nancy Leonard, Kim Tyner, and all the great people at STC for helping my vision become reality; to Debra Wierenga for sanding down the roughest edges; to my agent Jeff Kleinman at Graybill & English for his stubborn resolve to see this book get published; to Amazin Walter for that first hand-stacking lesson some twenty years ago; and to all the talented sand sculptors Ive carved with who taught me so muchmay your sand always stand! But special thanks to Fred The Accomplisher Mallett who suggested, directed, proofed, and plays nice in the sandbox, too.

PART 1
The Basics

Chapter 1
Background on Sand, Sand-sculpting Methods, and Sand-sculpting Tools

Chapter 2
Getting Started

PART 2
Building

Chapter 3
Sandcastle-building Method #1: Soft-packing

Chapter 4
Sandcastle-building Method #2: Hand-stacking

Chapter 5
Sandcastle-building Method #3: Forms

PART 3
Carving

Chapter 6
Introduction to Carving

Chapter 7
Types of Carving Tools

Chapter 8
Carving Roofs

Chapter 9
Other Architectural Elements

Chapter 10
Imports: Fudgies and South Texas Snowballs

Chapter 11
Surface Detail

Chapter 12
Landscaping

Chapter 13
Incorporating Characters into Your Castle

PART 4
Make It Fun

Chapter 14
Big Group Dynamics

Chapter 15
Working with Very Young Children

Chapter 16
Contest Tips

So there you were, at the beach with your pails and shovels. With childhood friends or children or a significant other. With visions of sandcastles dancing in your head.

Chances are you watched, disappointed, as your dream palace slumped, crumbled, or refused even to emerge from its pretty plastic mold.

Like anything worth doing, sandcastle building is not as easy at it looks. Its a unique craft, with its own tools, techniques, and trade secrets. A small group of professional sand sculptors (were talking adults here) actually earn a living building castles in the sand.

I am one of those fortunate few. I have built sandcastles on beaches around the world, competing in master-level sand-sculpture competitions. At my home beach on South Padre Island, Texas, I give lessons in sandcastle construction to school groups, conventioneers, and families like yours. I have taught thousands of the previously turret-and-tower-impaired how to build their dream castles.

In this book, I will teach you. Whether you are nine or ninety-nine, if you follow my step-by-step instructions for building towers, walls, and arches, you will learn how to build the basic components of a castle. If you read farther, you will learn how to combine these elements in different ways and how to add architectural details like roofs and doors and windows.

For those who want to move beyond the basics, there is information on building with forms (see ).

In other chapters, and in sidebars and tips sprinkled liberally throughout the book, I share just about everything I know about sand and how to persuade it to stand up and do your bidding. If you read the entire book and practice these techniques, we may eventually run into each other at a sand-sculpture competition!

But perhaps youre more interested in building a modest single-family dream castle while having an excellent day at the beach. If this book inspires you to do that, it will have fulfilled its purpose. Enjoy!

Lucinda sandy feet Wierenga

www.sandyfeet.com

An Overview, a Checklist, and Just a Smidgen of Physics

You can and should take this book with you to the beach so you can refer to the photos and step-by-step instructions as you create your works of art. Before you head out, though, there are a few things you need to know about the medium and the tools of the craft.

The basic premise of sandcastle building and sand sculpting is simple: Get very, very wet sand, form it into some sort of overall shape, and thenlike a sculptor hewing a figure out of marble or whittling a figurine out of woodcarve the sand into a recognizable form. A castle, perhaps, or a turtle or a person or anything else your imagination leads you to create.

Before we begin, lets talk a little about some of the principles you need to understand, and a few basic tools you need to have on hand.