Monday 16 July 2012

A Sunny Sunday at Weston Sand Sculpture Festival

In early July we woke up early, spied the blue skies and scrambled out of the house in an eager mood primed ready for investigation.  We had agreed that the "very next sunny day" we would take a trip into Weston super Mare and visit the Sand Sculpture Festival www.westonsandsculpture.co.uk/  

It's become an annual trip for us since we moved to Somerset and depicts sculptures created from compacted sand by world acclaimed artists - and you can walk amongst them and even have a go on a small scale yourself. 

This year's theme is 'Fun and Games' and there were some really impressive sculptures - they've stood up to an enormous amount of wind and rain with astonishingly little signs of damage and they are amazing in their scale and detail.




I loved the cheeky clown with his tongue stuck out.  He wasn't a freaky clown - more endearing than chucky style!







B loved the guy on the motorbike. It was like real movement had been captured in the sculpture with the goggles and scarf blowing round his neck.





The roller coaster looked like it would be great fun - the little people in the coaster cars were even leaning back from the force of g force!!







R's favourite was an adorable HuGE teddy bear (the height of a large house) with building blocks around him highlighting the theme of the exhibition.

There were lots more elements to enjoy but in case anyone is off to visit, I really don't want to spoil the surprise here!!  Visiting the festival was a thoroughly enjoyable way to pass a morning.  R & B played castle building with empty paper cups and fashioning sculptures of their own, whilst the 'grown-ups' watched on with smiley faces, cradling hot coffee....myself looking gheko like, head turned to the sun, enjoying the warmth on my face - something simple to enjoy indeed.

 And my favourite sculpture?


Ah, Queenie.  Need I say more!

2 comments:

  1. Those are fab. I've never seen anything like that before and would love to see how they are built. I'm guessing they start from the top and work down so as not to spoil their handiwork.

    A tip you might like is to put the name of the event in your post title. I did this when I blogged about The Macclesfield Treacle Market and it is the post with most views so far (only 8 but I'll keep trying!)

    Best wishes,
    Penny

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  2. Oh wow - that's a top tip thank you!! I'll try and edit it now - it's worth a go! I'm commenting more on people's blogs that I follow since you said that's how you found me!! I'm sure it's slow to start for everyone - hopefully some more people will find us gradually!! I'm not sure anyone but you has viewed mine yet (I'm being very coy with my friends as I want to feel more confident about it firse!)

    The sand is compacted down in wooden frames like building blocks, one on top the other and then they remove each frame to work from the top down. It's mad how big they are - apparently some of the artists work with ice too, which would be really different again to work with!! Talented people! J9 x

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