Portal:The arts/Featured picture/January, 2006



A sand castle is a type of sand sculpture which resembles a miniature building, often (but not always) a castle. The two basic building ingredients, sand and water, are available in abundance on a sandy beach. A variant on the sand castle is the drip castle, made by mixing extra water in with the sand, and dripping this wet sand from a fist held above. When the slurry of sand and water lands on existing sand structures, the water is rapidly wicked away leaving the blob of sand in place. The effect is Gaudi-esque. Although sand castles are typically made by children, simply for the fun of making them, sand sculpture is also a form of art. Sand art can be large and/or complex, such as the sophisticated mandala in Buddhist art. Ice and snow are also utilised for art in the form of ice sculptures and snow sculptures.