There are sandcastles and then there are trophy sandcastles.
You know, the kind next to you that people ogle and applaud as they’re being built, totally ignoring the one you’re building and your pathetic attempts to get a little reed to stand up on a crumbling turret.
Take heart. Great sandcastle builders are made, not born, and here are some tips to get your property values up.
Janice Donaroma is the event organizer for the Sand Sculpture Contest sponsored by the Edgartown Board of Trade each year at South Beach, and she’s seen more than her share of sand structures.
“The thing about the Vineyard,” says Janice, “is that our sand is very granular and hard to pack. It has to be really wet to work, and what I sometimes [personally] do is get clay from Chilmark Pottery and mix it in with the sand so it will hold together better.”
Start by digging a hole down to the water table so you can get to the wet sand. A real shovel will come in handy here – your back will thank you. The best place to dig is at the high-tide mark: close enough to the water so you don’t have to dig down too deep, and far enough away so your work won’t be washed out by a wave. An alternative to digging a hole is to mix the sand and water in a bucket and build out of it instead.
Essentially, there are two techniques for compacting sand: soft packing and hand stacking. (You can also use forms, which can be bought online, but we’re purists, so we’re not going to go there. Besides, they’re not allowed at the Sand Sculpture Contest.)
Soft packing is pretty basic: You simply pack wet sand into a mound, roughly the shape of what you want to build. For hand stacking, you shape handfuls of moist sand into thin building blocks or patties and stack them into different shapes. This allows you to get more elevation.
Lucinda Wierenga (a.k.a. Sandy Feet), from South Padre Island, Texas, is probably as close as there is to being a professional sand sculptor, and she has conducted clinics here in conjunction with the Sand Sculpture Contest.
Lucinda cautions against pounding the sand too hard, instead letting gravity do the compacting for you so that water is distributed evenly throughout the patties.
If you’ve dug a hole, you might want to start your castle on top of the mound of sand you’ve dug out. Stack up a pile of patties, making them smaller as you go higher, and soon you’ll have a rough tower. Seal your towers by gently pouring water over them. Stack some more patties horizontally and you’ll create walls. Hum “Camelot” to yourself and follow your medieval muse.
Once you’ve roughed out the general shape of your castle, you can start sculpting stairs and archways and other details, and here you’ll need some tools. Lucinda recommends using basic items like plastic knives, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, a credit card (if all else fails, you can hire someone else to do the work), or a straw, which is handy for delicate work – just blow away the unwanted sand. Begin at the top of the castle and work down, so that falling sand won’t destroy what you’ve already carved. And feel free to embellish with shells, stones, reeds, or anything else you think will bring your castle to life.
Then when you’re done, step back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. You’ve worked hard – you should be proud. And as the kid chasing the Frisbee trips on your moat and levels your creation, think pure thoughts before reaching for your shovel – to rebuild, of course.
