Splash - sand sculpture
If you could be any animal, which would it be? I made my decision many years ago when I saw a cormorant off the coast of Ireland. These birds can fly, walk and swim giving them the best of all worlds. To see them dive is really quite special as they collapse up in the air like a rocket and pierce the ocean's surface with ner a ripple. Like me, they are not the most attractive creatures in the world but their interdimensional travel is where their true beauty lies.
Did you know that humans have lots of physical features that show our aquatic evolution? We have blubber like other sea mammals, Our hair and noses are in line with the flow of water as we swim, and coolest of all our heartbeat automatically drops when we enter the water. We are water babies whether we know it or not. I really think that if we could fly it would be the icing on our cake.
Breaking the surface
The last sculpture I documented was about Scuba diving, Today we have one about diving through the surface of the water.
That feeling as you launch yourself like superman into the air and sail down in a leap of faith is exhilarating. It is a scary time that seems to slow until finally you hit the water and enter another world of calm and peace. I just love it to bits. This sculpture was about that moment, crossing the divide.
I had never been to Marbella before as is would not be the kind of place I would like to visit except for my work. These holiday destinations don't interest me, way too noisy and fake but I was glad I got to visit on this project to confirm my suspicions. I'll say no more except I'll probably never return unless there is a pile of sand to be carved.
Powdered lava
We used the beach sand that was there and although it wasn't very good for carving it did have some interesting attributes. Very light in colour, in the Mediterranean sun it was like carving lava. I could not walk in my bare feet or I would be burned to a crisp. Another thing about the sand was that it had lots of iron in it. My metal tools would get magnetised through use and then powdered iron dust would stick to them meaning continual wiping on my shirt. Maybe this also caused it to get so hot in the sun as it could have stored the heat. (This is just a theory)
My sculpture doesn't need much more description apart from what I wrote here. It was just some girl diving into the water and had a certain Mermaid vibe about it. I really had to slope everything backwards to stop it from collapsing and in the end, it was a very much one-sided being more of an image than an actual sculpture.
Back-breaking work
The only other noteworthy thing about the project was that I really did myself some serious damage on the last day. I was working on the bottom trying to create a kind of desert effect with sailing rocks and sand ripples. I was leaning over for ages trying to finish the trench that I had made around the sculpture and when I went to stand up my back got a severe stabbing pain. I figured that with a couple of days rest it would get better but over the next few months, it would develop into a very bad sciatic nerve pain that travelled all the way down my leg.
I am sure I will bring it up again over the next couple of posts as I continued to try and work through incredible pain.
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.
Diving - sand sculpture
i²=j²=k²=ijk=-1 - sand sculpture
The American Dream - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite
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https://twitter.com/fleetingsculpt/status/1327204137738637312
You never disappoint @ammonite, very impressive. They just keep getting better.
Thanks very much Dandays. I am documenting 2012 at the moment so have another 8 years to go till I am up to date.
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ENGAGE
tokens.Why is it some of the worst injuries we do ourselves we don't notice until we move back into our normal position? Did it heal eventually, or do you still have issues?
Working with sand can be terrible for your posture and joints. This particular time I did something silly and had to reach over a finished area to do something I should have finished first. Time was tight and a really didn't notice the pain till I stood up.
I was in pain from September till January and was getting to a point that I was thinking this was the new normal. Finally, it was fixed within moments on my honeymoon. The story of that will be a post in itself.
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Oof sounds like you threw something pretty bad, did you get around to getting it checked out or have you been staggering around all this time hoping it will go away on its own? D:
If you ever have to come to my end of the planet for some sand sculpty goodness, that experience with the hot sand is forewarning for the type of thing you'll get here ;D
It was the worst pain I had in my life and there were a few months that I could only stand for 30 seconds before sitting for 30. I say many doctors and physiotherapist but none could help. I will make a post when the time is right about how it was fixed as it was quite interesting. Now I am ok and much more careful.
That sand was so hot, I nearly started to dislike the stuff. I can normally deal with cold much better than heat. It is amazing how different sand is all over the world and for me, it was so strange to see all the iron in it. I used a magnet to gather a bag of it, I still think I have it somewhere. Does your sand have iron?
!ENGAGE20
The beach that hosts Sculpture by the Sea doesn't as far as I'm aware XD
I'm a little annoyed I never made it to one but it's at a very popular beach that I wouldn't drive to
ENGAGE
tokens.