If there is one place which could be called the Mecca of Sand sculpture in Europe it would be Sheveningen ,Holland. For many sculptors it was the first place they tried working with the material and although the yearly competition has long since stopped many of those original sculptors went professional because of it and still work with sand to this day.
The first year was a large sculpture with many complete novices working on it. A Dutch Company 'Inaxi' thought it would be a great attraction and a way to promote their business as a team building company. They would use sand sculpture as a way to help businesses encourage team structure in their employees. Making a sand sculpture together helps sort out the chiefs from the Indians.
It was the first time something of this scale made from sand was seem in Europe and It became a big side business for Inaxi. Organising promotional events and exhibitions using sand and then ice.
I joined after I believe two years when they needed some extra Irish in the mix.
Over the years it was a mixture of group and solo sculptures and with this showcase Sunday I want to show you all the ones I was involved in. As always you can click the image to be brought to the full post about that particular one.
My first time In Scheveningen and my second attempting to carve sand. I was on a team of nine and luckily had my own little satellite sculpture to try and make Charon the Ferryman from the Greek myth.
Many of the scheveningen projects had some sort of promotional tie-in. This year was Disney. Our sculpture had a bit of a critical message about the way that Disney was trying to assimilate the smaller independent Pixar.
This year was a celebration of Holland and I just did what I was told as I was surrounded by a fully Dutch team.
This was a bit of a disaster and a good education on why trying to design a sand sculpture beforehand can be a waste of time.
I really liked this solo sculpture as I was trying something very new and it all came together as I had hoped. With this I was also given first prize. It was so cool to be appreciated by my peers.
More Disney, this time the Lion King musical was in town and they wanted to promote it. I didn't...
This was a team sculpture With Edith Van Der Wetering and Wilfred Stijger. It was all a bit crazy but from what I heard the Queen of Holland liked it. I really risked my life to make it so she had better of. WE were also awarded the first prize for the madness.
I think a few other projects happen in Scheveningen but I have never returned. I will always have good memories of it as a location because it was always the first of the sand season and I really got to learn so much about working together as a team.
That's it for this week, Have a great Sunday
