The techniques I use have evolved over several years to solve problems I've encountered in doing what I want to do. There are, however, many other ways to make things in sand, including the following. Sand is soft and inviting. Give it a try. Basic Elements Damp sand: This is the classic method. You can find damp sand on any beach by digging through the upper dry sand. Just dig up the damp sand and pile it, packing each layer. At its simplest, you only need hands, to dig and pack. For bigger work, use a shovel or a lot of people or a bulldozer. Most of the sand you see in the really big castles is piled this way, with other techniques used for the detailed parts. This method is good for structures lacking big vertical walls or fine detail. Added water: You need a bucket for this. It's the same basic technique as the damp sand one, except you deliberately make the sand wetter. This helps it pack better, which makes the pile stronger. Dig up sand, add water and pack. Add sand and water until your pile is as big as you want. The resulting pile is reasonably uniform and can be carved with taller walls and more detail. Drip piling: This works best with fine sand. Beaches with fine sand tend to have more gradual slopes than coarse-sand ones. You want sand that forms a creamy slurry when mixed with water; if the sand settles too rapidly, it won't flow properly. You can either find slurry by digging in the beach below the high-tide line, or by mixing it in a bucket. If you dig for it, make sure you start building two or three feet from your borrow pit, because its sides will fall in, gradually making the pit wider. Grab a handful of slurry and let it run out between your fingers as you hold your hand steady. The slurry will hit the beach and build up into a stalagmite, which can be made tall and thin with enough care. Continue until these fantastic forms are as big as you want. The resulting pile is more solid than you can get with either of the above techniques, but is small. Dripping is best used for decoration; if you want a bigger pile, use the next method. Pattycake: This is a development of the drip pile. Instead of letting the sand slurry run through your fingers, you grab it in double handfuls and plop it onto the beach. Shake it so the sand settles, then quickly add more sand. The key is to get the next layer on before the previous one has dried too much; if you're too slow, the new sand won't stick and it will split when carved along the dry horizontal joint. Rapidly repeat until you get a pile as tall as you want, or the pile is tall enough that the water drains too quickly. If you're using lake sand, which tends to have silt in it, you'll have the opposite problem: the water drains so slowly that the pile gets saturated, and slumps. Using this method produces a pile that's more solid than any of the preceding ones, but it has soft spots where new pats of sand are added. It's still strong enough to carve into towers and arches, which can be left where they are, or picked up and added to another sculpture. Hand building: You can shape handfuls of wet sand into balls or other forms. Pick up a dripping handful of sand and squeeze it. The sand will pack, holding its shape, and the excess water will drip out. Leave it as is, or carve it as in the pattycake technique, and place it on a larger sculpture. Forms: Forms are hollow structures that contain sand while it's being packed. The idea is to make a strong pile and then carve it to the desired shape. Because the sand is held in place, the packing is much more effective, and the resulting pile is very solid. Most sand sculptors use reinforced plywood sheets for their forms. Put in sand, dampen it with buckets of water, and pack it with a heavy tool such as a car axle. My technique is different because I don't want to carry that heavy equipment; my flexible forms roll up to small packages and are lightweight, and using lots of water in the form means I don't have to use a heavy packing device. Forms work with any kind of sand (although finer is better) and allow you to produce uniform piles of any size that can be carved into great detail, with long overhangs and big arches. You can use many things to make forms: trash cans, wastebaskets, buckets, sheets of wood, stiff plastic. Cut the bottoms out of trash cans and buckets so you can fill them, and cut the side so it can be peeled off when full. Glue a waterproof flap on one edge to seal the gap. Hold the form together with rope or a buckle strap. What you make is up to you, and these techniques will get you started. Lots of people stick with the traditional dragons and castles, but I approach sand from a different direction: it's a sculpture medium, and you can make anything. Call it a three-dimensional sketching material.

Using the Basics Mounds: These are the starting point for lots of designs. You can make mountains, volcanoes, crags, or anything else to put your real sculpture on. Use the damp sand or added water techniques, pack it well, and make it bigger than you think you'll need. Don't count on carving much detail. Walls: For big walls with minimal detail, use the added water technique. Pack the sand and make it as tall as you want, then carve the surface detail. For areas where you want high detail, such as towers and entry arches, use the pattycake technique. For walls over two feet, use forms. Towers: You can make towers with the pattycake technique, by simply piling the sand straight up to make a cylinder, then carving it to shape. Using a form will allow you to make a taller tower. Be advised that getting anything additional, such as a buttress or bridge, to stick to an existing pile is very hard. You're better off making one bigger pile, and carving all the elements. Additions can be made on top, or beside an existing sculpture; I've seen one fellow make towers with damp sand, then hand-build a cap which he lifts and puts on top of the tower. Arches: Freestanding arches (example: the one in St. Louis) can be made using the pattycake technique. Make the pile, then carve the arch as a catenary. Two towers connected by an arch can be made by pattycaking a rectangular pile, with the tower tops added, and then carving the arch. You can also make these by building the towers and then using a hand or piled sand for falsework to hold up the pattycake span as you install it, but this is tricky. Big structures: Combine all the techniques to make a finished piece. A mound can be your base, with a damp-sand wall, some pattycake towers and a highly detailed section using forms. Don't get stuck in building the expected things, just because I use them as examples. Work with sand for a while, get to know it and let it speak to you. You'll be surprised at what you can make. Decorations: Finials, spires and other decorative elements can be hand-built and placed on your sculpture. Watch for overloading; a delicate sculpture can be broken by a heavy addition on top. Try making spires by dripping. To roughen the ground you can throw sand around, or drop handfuls, or drag seaweed along. Shells and rocks add color and detail if they're available. FAQ | How I Do It | About Tools | About Sand | About Competition Library Human Touch Museum

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