The Gift of Gothic
Posted on 08/30/2008 1:11:22 PM PDT by yankeedame
The best buildings sculpted from sand require the skills of an architect—sudden structural collapse is a significant risk—and the details depicted by some well-packed granules rival the most ornate towers and palaces you'd find on terra firma. Any of the examples here could be widely regarded as significant structures—if only they hadn't washed away hours after their completion. According to Ted Siebert's 1990 book, The Art of Sandcastling, "Seawater is an ideal bonding agent for a sand castle. As seawater in a sculpture evaporates, salt crystals remain, forming a thin crust over the entire surface. If the sculpture is sprayed from time to time, an additional buildup of salt crystals will help preserve the piece." Take his advice, and start digging before summer ebbs away.
The Gift of Gothic
(Photograph Courtesy of Sandsculpting.com)
Despite the forbidding dragon in the foreground, this castle appears to have been sold to a satisfied "Homenet real estate" customer. In fact, the castle was built and "sold" in Cape Town, South Africa to corporate donors as part of a fund-raiser for children¹s charities. With its steeply pitched Gothic gables, carved crests and soaring turrets, the castle fetched more than $12,500
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Knights of the Round Turret
(Photograph Courtesy of Sandsculpting.com)
This small castle plays with the proportions of the building in relation to the oversize characters carved into its facade. The conical turret at the top brings the stone chimneys and cluster of gables to a sharp apex. Raised blocks of smooth, squared stone, known as ashlar, project from the wall behind the knight and beneath the princess to create the appearance of masonry.
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City of Sand
(Photograph Courtesy of sandsational.com)
Not content to carve just a castle, Sandsational built an entire village, complete with row houses, a cathedral and street trees. Window styles resembling traditional double-hungs dominate the houses, while the tower in the rear shows notched ledge walls with a gap-toothed look, a feature on real castles known as crenelation.
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Knights of the Round Turret
(Photograph Courtesy of Sandsculpting.com)
This small castle plays with the proportions of the building in relation to the oversize characters carved into its facade. The conical turret at the top brings the stone chimneys and cluster of gables to a sharp apex. Raised blocks of smooth, squared stone, known as ashlar, project from the wall behind the knight and beneath the princess to create the appearance of masonry.
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Hilltop Hollows
(Photograph Courtesy of Sandude.com)
Created by two-time World Grandmaster Champion Rich Varano, this craggy medieval castle features Gothic arched windows and conical turrets. A pair of rough-hewn arches at the bottom seem to defy gravity, as does the gaping maw of a face emerging from the path leading to the base of the castle. It is 9.5-ft. tall, took 35 hours
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Le Petit Arc
(Photograph Courtesy of Sandsculpting.com)
Inspired by Paris' Arc de Triomphe, this miniature mimics the original right down to the decorative sculpting along its facade. The blocky dentil molding along the arch's crown reappears on the rear tower, adorning the fascia above the clock and beneath the copper finials. At front, a subdued Napoleon I seems pleased with the likeness.
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Sandy Arabia
(Photograph Courtesy of Harrisand.com)
With its domed minaret and unornamented windows, this Arabian Nights scene would fit perfectly on the coast of Yemen at the mouth of the Red Sea. Built on a coast much farther west, the castle won the Sculptor's Choice Award for its creators—a team called The Revolutionaries—at the 2005 Harrisand tournament in British Columbia.
(The rest of the article at PM...but this posted was the 'good stuff'.)
The Barack Obama Campaign!
Built on Sand -- Destined to Wash Away with the Tides Of History!
Cheers!
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Shelley
How big are they?
Congressman Billybob
Tenth in the ten-part series, "The Owner's Manual (Part 10) -- The Remaining Amendments"
...thanks ClearCase_guy...that really took me back...we studied Ozymandius in school back in 1956....wonder if kids are even taught classic poetry these days?....guess their idea of poetry is rap.
these are absolutely amazing works of art!
Actually, I view his campaign as a large, gas filled balloon that got a big pin stuck in it yesterday morning, it's been squirting all over since then.
Palin/McCain '08!
Pretty cool.
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