It's that time of year again, well in my chronology anyways where I have to present some sculptures out of season. For many years I have been called on to create some sand sculptures based around the theme of Christmas. Sand nativities are quite popular in Spain and for 2007 I was asked to help make one in Guadalajara.
It was a very small project with just two carvers, Dale Murdock and myself. Dale is a Canadian now living in France and he was a nice companion to work with.
Sleepless in Guadalajara
The night time was another matter. We shared a hotel room and he snored like a warthog. Now, if you've seen any images of me you will know that I need all the beauty sleep I can get. Being a lite sleeper also doesn't help. I tried everything from ear plugs to buying him anti snore patches for his nose but nothing worked. His head would hit the pillow and within minutes he would be snoring away. Shouting at him would only gave a minute or two pause, I was driven demented. Finally I had to take my mattress and bring it into the toilet. It formed a Pringle™ type form when I stuffed it in but it had to do, along with the earplugs, Pillow Gaffa™ taped round my head and heavy drinking I could get to sleep even with the sound coming from the other room.
Why am I telling you this? well it is a pet peeve of mine. Working on a project and having to share a sleeping room with someone. I really need my own space in the evening and to be treated like I am still a student in a dorm is not acceptable. Many of the more professional projects realise this but there are still some that cut whatever costs they in comfort for the sculptors. OK rant over.
For all In tents and purposes
As a sculpture it was pretty straight forward, consisting of three connected scenes. Shephards, the nativity and the three Kings. While Dale worked on the nativity I made the kings and shepherds. The compactions were quite small due to the fact that we were working on a low tent. It was all very confined so I used some perspective to have them appear to be coming out of the landscape and make the whole thing seem bigger.
One thing that was a big issue was the fact that every morning we came in the surface of the sand was frozen solid it would defrost during the day in Spanish sun but I had to make sure that I finished each element I was working on before evening or the next day I would have to chip away to reveal soft sand. I also tried experimenting with spraying the sculpture with some washing-up liquid to act as a anti-freeze. It actually worked and made the sand a bit more sticky, which was nice to work with.
As kings go they were Ok but that front camel looked pretty silly.
Dale made a nice enough job of the nativity although his slow working meant I had to do a lot more for us to finish on time.
For the most part I was happy with my shepherds. They were quite roughly carved but I think I got away with it and the composition was quite nice. Dale then made the Herald Angel and the sheep.
Not the most memorable project. I think I would have remembered more about it if I had slept better.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Zhoushan 2007 - sand sculpture (Part 2)
Zhoushan 2007 - sand sculpture (Part 1)
Fringe - sand sculpture
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