Sand Sculpting 101

First and foremost, every Karma Kastles team should know that we can have plenty of fun on the beach without a lot of fancy tools. But in the spirit of some healthy competition, we've put together some tips and resources straight from the experts. So, take a peek! Look through these details with your teammates, and you'll be well on your way to being a strong contender in the Karma Kastles competition!

Tools of the Trade

TheEssential Tools for Any Team

• Water buckets- the number one rule for making a sand sculpture work is having the sand very wet. This is especially true with the coarser shell-like sand of Jupiter Beach. So, it's essential to have a lot of buckets so you can properly wet down your sand before and during your sculpting. A good rule of thumb is to try to have at least one big water bucket per team member. (Kid's sand pails are not considered a big bucket. You?ll be making a lot of water trips to the ocean if you only have small pails. Count on having some bigger industrial size buckets.) Larger teams are going to have more sand to work with and will definitely want more buckets than less. Work together and decide as a team what amount works best for you.
• Shovels-You will definitely need some shovels. Long-handled shovels with small scoops work very well, and are a little bit easier on your back. Again, you'll have to decide as a team how many to have, but the bigger sandlots will definitely want to have quite a few.

Non-Essential Tools, but Definitely Helpful (as well as free or cheap!)

• Spoons, knives, toothpicks, funnels, spades, scoopers, skewers, and paint scrapers are just some of the many inexpensive items that can be used to carve sand. Take a quick peek in your kitchen or garage for any kind of implements that might look like good carving or shaping tools for the finer details of your sculpture.
• Water Spray Bottles: Again water is the key to any successful sculpture. Spray bottles help you douse the finished sculpture and the more delicate parts of your piece that would not do well with a bucket of water being dumped on it.
• Rakes: Very helpful at smoothing out the sand surface for the bigger lots and clearing the areas of any debris.

Other Fun Tool Options and Tricks

• Pastry Knife: These knives come in various shapes and sizes, and can be found anywhere they sell cake decorating items. These can be very helpful at making little doors or windows on castle sculptures or are good for shaping smaller delicate areas.
• Old paintbrushes:good for smoothing out loose sand or knife marks on a sculpture.
• Drinking straws: excellent for adding small details where a knife or larger item would be too big and for blowing away loose sand while keeping the larger structure entacted.
• Melon ballers or ice cream scoops: these are fun and quite handy to use when making scalloped edges around a structure.

How to Get Started With the Sand

A general note about the sand on Jupiter Beach: Each section is unique in its own right, but overall, this beach has course-like sand filled with lots of broken shell pieces. Generally speaking, this type of sand will work well with large, oversized sculpting. Keep this in mind when choosing your sculpture design. If you are a new sand sculptor, you should make yourself aware of these essential first steps of sand-sculpture building:

• Dry sand is impossible to work with.
• You will want very wet sand on your sandlot before you even begin sculpting. To accomplish this, start the competition by clearing your sandlot of any debris and then pouring buckets of ocean water on to your sandlot. Have some of your team members be the ?water carriers? while others stay on the sandlot and use their feet to mush the wet sand all around. Really mix it up. You can also have other team members try to shovel down to the water table where you?ll have moist sand at the ready. It won?t be too far to dig because you?ll be close to the ocean, but you'll probably want people pouring water buckets anyway. Once your entire plot is really moist, then it?s time to start the actual sculpting phase. If you cut yourself short in the "watering" phase, you'll pay for it later. So, make sure to be thorough. Even with this, however, you'll probably want some team members on "water duty" throughout the competition. Some areas of your plot may need continually reapplication of more water.

General Tips for Sculpting

• Start with a plan: Draw a rough sketch of the sculpture you'd like to build. Be creative! There are going to be a lot of sculptures, and you want yours to stand out to the crowd. Brainstorm together as a team, and then try to find a picture or a 3D model you can use to guide you on competition day. For example, if you are going to create a sculpture of a boat, take a toy boat with you to use as a mini-guide. Also, make sure your whole team is aware of the game plan and delegate each person?s role ahead of time. This will save you precious sculpting time on competition day.
• Sculptures work better with a flat base. Work to flatten out your sand and create a foundation for the sculpture before building the sculpture itself.
• Consider having sculpted writing or a friendly message incorporated into your sand sculpture. Nothing like making the piece a little more interactive.
• Your sculpting phase will most likely start with packing and patting moist sand into a mound that roughly resembles the shape you are envisioning. After a rough redistribution of the sand, then your team can break up and work on the fine details of each section.
• In the detailing phase, you may want to break out the finer tools, as the sand can be quite delicate at this point! When doing fine detailing, go slow and make sure the structure you are starting with is still very wet so it doesn't start to crumble at your touch.
• General rule of thumb: In order for high sculptures to hold, the sand has to be very wet.
• You can seal a sculpture and hold it into place by gently pouring water over it. Or, for the real delicate parts, use the water spray bottle.
• Consider a border wall or a moat around the perimeter of your sandlot. This looks quite professional and can prevent four-legged intruders from coming into your sandlot.
• Smoothing over your finished sculpture with an old paintbrush can give it a polished and finished look. It?ll ensure that there are no rough edges or loose sand drifts lying around.
• Cleaning up around your sandlot can make the difference between winning and just finishing. Even a very small sculpture looks better if it is sitting in a nice and tidy area.
• How to make a Kid-Friendly Patty Cake Tower: Use your hands to create a patty of very wet sand, several inches thick. After the patty has been gently leveled and patted into shape, make a new, slightly smaller patty on top of the one. Repeat the process until you've reached the desired height. The idea is to create a tall tapering tower with a wide base and narrow top. The bigger the base, the taller you can build, and pack gently as you grow the tower.
• How to make a Kid-Friendly Dribble Tower: Take chunks of very wet, almost liquidy sand in your hands and squeeze a fistful and let it drip out of your hand into a little stacked tower of sand.

Special Tips from the Experts

• Expert Tip # 1: Sand getting dry? Try to mix water and sand in a bucket and then taking out the sand and applying it to the appropriate areas of your sculpture. Adding water to sand, and hoping that they are mixing together is usually a recipe for disaster at some later stage when you are attempting to carve delicate details in a block that is not properly constituted. Much better to start adding sand to water for those delicate parts.
• Expert Tip # 2: Dig a hole to the water table and then use your hands like a front end loader. Scoop out a large double handful of super wet sand from the bottom of the hole, pulling the sand towards you. Move that sand fast so you don't lose all the water before you get to your destination. Start building your sculpture on top of the mound of sand you dug from the hole.
• Expert Tip #3: Flatten your handfuls of wet sand into pancakes by jiggling them with gentle pressure. Pounding, pushing, patting, packing, pressing or pummeling the sand will not work. The goal is to distribute the water evenly so it settles and binds to the other sand around it.
• Expert Tip #4: Ninety percent of the building process is actually sculpting the structure down from a larger pile. Unless of course, you enjoying doing things twice! Work from the top down. Make sure that there is ample sand for the creation to exist by piling a mound high and wide and then carving down from that.
• Expert Tip # 5: SAFETY NOTE: Be careful where you step backwards. There may be shovels, rakes, or other tools behind you!
• Expert Tip # 6: Have patience! When sculpting, remove small amounts of sand at a time. It is very difficult, or almost impossible, to replace sand on the initial pile once it is gone. Also, be prepared to go slow with the small details and pass over an area with the finer tools more than once, taking only little bits of sand off at a time.
• Expert Tip # 7: If you can, take a practice run at the beach. Experiment with some of the above techniques so you and your teammates will already be familiar with what to do on the big day.
• Expert Tip # 8: If something doesn't come out as planned, or a tower topples over, or a wall looks too jagged, don't despair - improvise. Just as the sea remains constantly in motion, so too must the creative vision of the sand sculptor. Remember, first and foremost, you are doing this to have fun and to raise money for a good cause. Keep a relaxed and stress-free outlook on the project, and enjoy yourself.

Online Resources

Comprehensive online resources for all your building needs: http://www.sandcastlecentral.com/resources/index.html

Site for families: http://www.kidsturncentral.com/links/sandcastles.htm

Special Tricks with buckets: http://www.sobshop.com/tools/sets/bucketform.html