Tag Archives: sand castles

Sand Castle Friday #7

After walking all morning without a sand castle in sight, I decided to make my own.

When I’m coastal, my husband and I take every morning that we can and walk the beach. The sun is just rising, the breeze is slight, shore birds are scurrying about. It is the best time of day.

With a coffee in hand, camera in my pocket and sometimes a bag for shells (if I’m on a shelly beach) we set out to walk the tide line.

There are always exciting and crazy things to spot on the beach, early in the morning. Sadly trash from the day before (I’ve been known to collect it if I remember to bring a trash bag), but on a happy note there could be exciting shells, washed up sea life, sea glass, sea beans and more. Sand castles and sculptures are left from the day before and some survive the crashing waves and other things that can destroy a work of art.

I had finished my coffee and decided to make my own castle since there were none to see on our walk.

Happy Sand Castle Friday. Will you make a castle this weekend?

 

Sand Castle Friday #6

sandcastle 2

THE DRIBBLE SAND CASTLE

These are fun to make and only require your hands, some wet sand and imagination; no purchased tools necessary.

So what you do is first find an area just beyond the high-water line on the beach. This way you have wet sand but you don’t risk the waves constantly crashing it.

Gather up some wet sand in your hand, holding it with a fist and let the sand drip out from the space you make in your fist around your pinky finger. Keep building up the drips, making the area wider and taller and viola! You have an awesome castle after a while.

You could take a bucket, if you have one handy, and fill it with both sand and water and pull wet sand from there to dribble. Be sure, however, to let most of the water filter from your hand before dribbling sand or it will be too wet and you won’t get the clumpy texture on your castle.

Dribble Sand Castle making is one of those things you may practice with for a little while before mastering it, but it is easy to master in a short amount of time.  If you can sift dry sand from a fisted-hand, you can dribble wet sand to make a sand castle.

You can make Dribble Sand Castles on any beach. The sand doesn’t have to be a particular texture. I used to make these as a kid growing up with Ocean City MD sand. Later, raising my kids in Myrtle Beach SC, we would make Dribble Sand Castles with that finer sand, and again with the varying Sarasota FL sands. Dribble Sand Castles are awesome.

The current fad for relaxation and destressing is coloring books.  I think a better option for relaxation and destressing is sifting sand through your hand and making Dribble Sand Castles.  You can also simply keep a decorative bucket of sand in your house or office to sift through for relaxation; throw in a few small shells to play with and let your thoughts float.

I found this castle (pictured above) on a morning beach walk. It appears to have been overtaken by the tide on one side, although maybe the tide-side was really left undeveloped around the hole.  You never know. Morning beach walks are exciting, because you can find castle and sculpture remnants that keep you guessing.  I highly recommend morning beach walks.

Happy Sand Castle Friday. Will you make one this weekend?

 

Siesta Key Sand Sculpture Show

One of my favorite things each year on Siesta Key FL is the sand sculpture competition. It’s coming up, The Crystal Classic Master Sand Sculpting Competition, from November 14-18, 2014.  Check the website, here, for the schedule of events for these five days of sand excitement.

The event has grown to a spectacular five days.  The sculpting should be phenomenal and inspiring for the wannabe sand artist.  It is so fun to manipulate the sand into fun little (or big) sand castles on a sunny beach day, but these folks take playing with sand to the extreme.

Admission is charged per day and be prepared to spend you cash on lots of other goodies and food while you’re there.  Have fun. Please write in if you go and send some photos that I can post.

Photos from previous years: