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Every job needs laborers. Buckets have no glamor and few people even notice them except when they stumble over them, or they're in the background of a photograph. Carving tools get all the attention but buckets and shovels and other basic, unstylish pieces of equipment are the difference between sculpture and nothing.
One thing leads to another. I used to be able to carry my whole kit, form and carving tools, plus lunch and camera, in one trip from a borrowed car. I'd put the rolled-up form on my shoulder, bucket full of tools in one hand and a carry bag in the other.
I still remember the day I started using two buckets instead of one. I'd started carrying my kit on a bicycle so there was room for more stuff. Two buckets meant I could carry twice as much water in the same amount of time! Efficiency! This was made possible by the bicycle-borne carrier.
I also remember the day I started using a shovel. In the interest of portability I'd simply used a flat piece of plastic to pick up sand and load it into a bucket. My back didn't hurt nearly so much after making this change.
Talk to NASA about support equipment. It was a major headache but the moon landings wouldn't have happened without it. Any operation needs support. In my case this equipment is a combination of built and bought items. If I can find it off the shelf I'll buy it, but as with carving tools you can't just walk into Sandsculptors R Us and buy what you need. So, I do it NASA's way.
Needs evolve, too. Time brings new problems that want new solutions. I also try to come up with better ways to solve old problems. Saving weight is important, saving time even more so. Equipment that makes the operation quicker, without sacrificing quality, is worth its weight in transport. Equipment that makes the work better is even more valuable, which is why I'm always looking for improvements.
I hate driving. I tried it anyway, one day, and found it more trouble than it was worth because it took three trips walking between car and beach to get all the kit out there, and three more trips to haul it all back. With a bike, I pull the load to the beach on a trailer, then unhitch the trailer and pull it across the sand.
There are other ways, also. For "lightweight editon" sculptures, such as free-pile ones, I can go by skateboard with the necessary tools in my pack. These include a collapsible bucket that a friend gave me. I can load a minimal form-based kit onto the sand cart and walk to the beach. This works well in the summer when there are crowds everywhere.
As I was working on the tools pages, I realized the support equipment had its own story to tell. When I remembered Rich's delightful shot of me being supported by Jim Lowe, the lifeguard, I knew where to start.
Reason for Equipment
Photograph by George Ollen
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Forms
Flex Form: This is the original portable form I made from Naugahyde and sticks in 1984. I still have it, for reasons more sentimental than functional although it is still usable. It started the whole thing. |
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Short Form: The original was hassle-prone, so I thought about improvements. This is the prototype, made first with zippers and then rebuilt with a sail-inspired bead seal. I still use it. |
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Mark 2 Flex Form: The Short Form's bead seal worked well, so Virginia and I made this replacement for the big Flex Form. I still have it, although it is seldom used because I do smaller sculptures. |
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Tall Form: A smaller, self-supporting form made from sailcloth. This one is just about worn out. |
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Latchform: This about as simple as forms get. Five seconds to set up, three seconds to remove. Made of swimming pool sidewall plastic. It has become my standard form for shorter days. |
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Flower Pots, etc: The idea of a sand sculpture form is to hold sand so it may be packed better. Any self-supporting piece of material will do it: old flower pots, wastebaskets, even 30-pound roofing felt. |
Transport
Aluminum Saddlebags: I made the original to carry groceries on my bicycle. That one got thrown away by my then landlord so I made a new one because I still needed groceries. After I moved to Santa Monica I discovered it would carry my sand sculpture kit. It did so until the bicycle broke down. |
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Bicycle Trailer: My bicycle's rear wheel failed because of the load imposed by all those years of hauling equipment. A trailer would work better, I thought, and when I found a Web site called "Bikes at Work" I figured it would be the place. |
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Buckets: At a minumum you have to get water from the ocean to the building site. Five-gallon buckets are the standard, and I use them for hauling and containing anything that will fit. |
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Sprayer: A good sprayer is essential. Otherwise the sculpture dries and falls apart; sand sculpture should, by all rights, be called sand-and-water sculpture. |
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Back-saver Sand Cart: I'm somewhat of a fanatic about sand. Small differences in grain size make a big difference in how well a sculpture holds up. I carry sand from the low tide area where it's finer to someplace out of the high tide's reach. My back started complaining about this abuse--wet sand is HEAVY--so I built this cart to carry four full buckets. |
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Plastic Tub: This is a lightweight tub normally used for mixing mortar. I started using one for storing good sand but the tarp works better. Now I use this tub for holding tools so they don't get lost. |
Packing Sand
Filter: Running into a big piece of shell in a thin sculpture part will ruin it. I experimented with various screens and filters, settling on this box design as the most efficient. |
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Bigfoot Tamper: You have to have a way to hit the sand down inside the form. I at first used a piece of 1X4 wood. Then I graduated to bamboo. When that fell apart my friend Mauricio and I designed this one. It works well. |
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Stainless Steel Shovel: Another find on the Internet. No more rust stains on my hands! |
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Scoop: Any task has its unexpected side effects. For sand sculpture it's worn-out fingernails. Does this sound silly? Try living without nails! The solution is to use tools as much as possible in handling sand. I use this scoop for transferring sand from buckets to filter. |
Miscellaneous
Portable Table: There are things better kept out of the sand. For this reason I bought a camper's table. It's an imperfect solution but works well enough. I wish it were lighter in weight. |
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Plastic Tarp: Sometimes I need to store good sand near the building site. A lightweight plastic tarp works well for keeping the good sand separate from the bad it's on top of. |
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CAUTION Tape: When I leave a cache of sand on the beach overnight I wrap this yellow tape around it. It's also useful, when strung on stakes, for keeping the crowds at a distance on busy summer days. |
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Film Cameras: I used to get yelled at regularly for not taking pictures of sculptures. Now it's a habit, and I use various cameras for the job, depending on what kind of sculpture it is and what the day is like. |
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Video Camcorder: Video is unexcelled for showing the process, and a video walkaround is the best way to see a sculpture in three dimensions. |
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Tripods: At the end of the day, Sculptor's Palsy sets in due to fatigue. A tripod is worth its weight to get sharp photos, if there's time left to use it. |
Public Relations
Information Sheets: This don't work for keeping people from asking questions, but they do give people something to take home. I do them in black only so they can be reproduced cheaply. |
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Picture Notebook: It's easier to show someone a picture of what I do than to try to describe it. |
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Literature Holders: These are attached to the trailer and hold the Info Sheets so they don't blow away. |
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Signs: This is another way to keep questions to a minimun, and they attract attention to the info sheets. |
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