"It would be difficult to find a type of display that attracts more media, appeals to a broader demographic, or has a more mesmerizing and memorable effect on audiences than a well-done sand scupture. Even simple ones can be entertaining, but well-designed and executed sculptures, like the ones Damon Farmer creates, when seen in person, are practically magical."
Classic sand castle. A 4 day project using 20 tons of sand.
Damon Farmer is a World Solo Champion grandmaster sand sculptor. He has over 30 years of sand sculpting experience. He very possibly has more awards than any other sand sculptor, having won and placed repeatedly in practically every major solo competition. This website is all about his creations in sand. It has a few photos of his work, and other info that may be helpful, whether you're just curious, a novice sculptor, or interested in having an original sand sculpture created for your event, wedding, festival, conference, party, concert, fair, convention, trade show, or whatever.
Shadetree Studio is Farmer's one-man award-winning sand sculpture/animation/graphic art/fine art company. He's been in business since 1978 and has been involved in a wide variety of projects, including logo design, prop/costume creation, theatrical set design, Museum display creation, murals, print & video graphics, graphics for submarines, and more. Originally the focus was on hand-drawn (cel) and computer animation . Farmer's long-time avocation of sculpting sand (since 1975) gradually blossomed into a major aspect of Shadetree commercial work that now provides many opportunities to share his favorite art form worldwide.
1. Sand sculptures are held together by the water in the sand. The water's surface tension between individual wet grains creates a strong bond. The bond is even stronger if the sand is compacted because the grains are closer together, so the water connection bridges a shorter gap.
Cold Join. Or Cold Joint. An area where soft sand is packed against a hardened poundup to extend the size of the pile. It is a very weak union between the hardpacked poundup sand and the added sand and is a common place for cracks and collapses to occur.
Pestators. A composite of Pest and Spectator. Some people just can't seem to watch sculptors at work without making a sincere effort to be annoying.
Prepound. 1. A type of competiton in which the poundups are created in advance by the organizers, so that the sculptors will have more time to sculpt. Most sculptors prefer this type of event.
After you've seen all you want here, these links will take you to the websites of a few of my sculptor buddies. Sometimes I work with these friends, sometimes we compete against each other, but they're all talented and have nice sites. There are also some competition/organization sites listed.
Excellent new website by international sand sculptors Remy and Paul Hoggard.