in sand two

If you caught the post I did last summer about the amazing sand sculpture that was here at the Carefree plaza, you'll remember it was this gigantic elephant playing chess with a mouse.

You can read the whole post about it here if you'd like. I was so enthralled by the whole thing and kept reminding myself not to mis it this year. I only saw it finished last year and hoped to see it earlier in the process this time. So, when I saw the signs go up, I went as soon as I could. 

Here it was the first day I stopped by. I found out they had already been working on it about two weeks.

 Ray Villafane is the artists name. He is the same guy that does the pumpkin sculptures in October. He had a friend along with him this year. His name is Nikolai and he is from Russia. Ray met him along his travels with sand sculpting and invited him to come to Arizona to work with him. I stopped every few days, as often as I could, to watch them work this spring. It was so interesting!  They have the sand brought in packed into this big block with supports around it. By the way, it is the same sand from the elephant last year. They re-use it over and over. It is compressed so tightly as you can see...supporting Ray as he sat on top working on the first figures. Ray is in the green beret.

Once they took the supports off the shape came together pretty quickly. In fact, you can tell I missed a few days because it got to this stage between visits.

They had plastic tubing tied to a band around their neck. They would blow in one end to gently blow the loose sand off the spot they were working on.

Nikolai would concentrate very quietly. He didn't chat with the visitors as much as Ray would. Of course he had a pretty heavy accent and was a little shy most of the time. And he was very conscientious with his work.

                                  So, you can tell that this was a "circus" stack of turtles.

                                       The detail is unbelievable. So dang cute too.

Here is momma looking over at her children. (This was before they did the eye detail).

By the way...did I mention that I have a whole bunch of photos to share? Get ready....

                                          Look at the wrinkles around her mouth even.

                                       Look closely at the top shell. Notice something?

                                    Here is the embarrassed face of the little guy....

                                         He's hiding some of his exposed parts...

 Both guys had a supply of tools that they would use. A different one for different techniques.

Periodically, they will spray the area they are working on to wet the sand a little more. It does dry out here pretty quickly.

And then they finished it. I believe it took about 6-8 weeks.

                                                                         So cute.

 They use a mixture of Elmers glue and water and spray a light coating over it when they are finished. It puts a 'crust' over it to protect it from eroding in the wind. It is protected under the canopy, somewhat, from rain. Believe it or not, it will last until August when they take it down and start preparing for the fall pumpkin display. I just love these sand sculptures and feel pretty lucky that this world renown artist lives right here in the area. What a treat to see these sculptures!!

                                                      I meant to take a shelfie with it.

                                                               The end.