All about sandcastles

If you were at the Alberta Open Sand Sculpture Competition this weekend, you would have seen tons of amazing sculptures like these ones:

It really makes you wonder "How'd they do that?"

Well, the coolest part about the event was that you were able to watch and see exactly how the contestants did it – every step of the way.

The larger pieces (such as the octopus head or pirate face) were sculpted out of huge blocks of sand. These were made by setting up giant rectangular molds, filling them with sand and tons of water, and then stomping the mixture down. When the molds were taken down, a huge sand cube remained. From there, the sand artists sculpted out the shapes and details.

But you don't need huge molds or special equipment to make your sandcastles impressive – by using the following techniques, you can create sandcastles with towers, walls, and arches. All you need is sand (the finer, the better!), a shovel, and some carving tools.

• The setup. When sculpting sand, water is as important as the sand itself! If you're at the lake or beach, dig down to the water table so that you have a source of wet sand (don't build your castle too far away from the shore; otherwise you'll be digging for a long time!).

• The technique. Use your hands like scoops to pull handfuls of wet sand from the bottom of the hole. Move fast so that the sand doesn't lose any water while you're moving it to where it needs to be.

• Towers. You can build tall towers using 'sand pancakes'. To make a sand pancake, take a handful of wet sand and jiggle it gently so that it flattens out. The idea is to get the water to distribute evenly throughout the sand – so don't pack it or punch it down! Stack several sand pancakes to build up your tower.

• Walls. Walls can be used to connect towers or to form staircases. To form a wall, hold your handfuls of sand between your two hands and jiggle the sand so that it forms a brick-like shape. Lay the bricks beside one another to achieve the desired wall length, and then layer them on top to achieve the desired wall height.

• Details. Once you have your basic tower or wall structures, you can carve details into them by shaving away excess sand. To turn a wall into a staircase, carve it into a ramp, and then carve out the individual steps. Shave off the corners of a tower to create a pointed roof. Scratching little square shaped out of towers and walls create the illusion of tiny windows.

Try out these techniques the next time you're making a sandcastle at the beach or at the lake – you're sure to get some pretty nifty results!

Have a great day!

Larissa

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