The Royal Orange - sand sculpture

Orange is the new sand sculpture. Well I had to start this post with something! To most of the world the colour is just a mix of yellow and red but for the Dutch it holds a big sense of pride. With this post I am not going to try and give a history lesson about the monarchy of Holland but suffice to say that it had something to do with the big wig William of Orange who in the 17th Century was king of Ireland , England and Scotland and a steward of The Dutch Low countries. I don't pay much attention to Royalty so you will forgive me my lack of knowledge. The Royals alive today in Holland are still called the House of Orange.

Dream team

I teamed up with @stijgerart and Edith Van Der Wetering for the 2005 Scheveningen sand sculpture competition in Holland. It was a great place to meet my friends again and usually the first sand project of the year. I had arrived a few days before and stayed with Wilfred and Edith in their house close by. We had decided on doing a mount Rushmore like sculpture of all the last Dutch Queens. It was soon to be the present queens 25 Jubilee and the Royals was the theme of the project. As you are probably aware the back of Mount Rushmore hasn't been carved but for us it would leave the back of our sculpture quite bare so It was decided that I would do something a little different on the back while still staying within the theme of course.

Secret Weapon

Wilfred and I spent a few days in his studio developing a secret weapon, which we called the liquifier 3000™. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of it but it was a device which would spray a jet of water at the sand sculpture turning it to liquid and then this sand mud would flow away from the sculpture leaving a hole. It was like a liposuction machine but for sand and would allow me to drill out the holes and caves I wanted to do in the sculpture. Above is a quick sketch.

While Wilfred and Edith got busy on the portraits at the front I worked away on my madness at the back. The liquifier 3000™ came in very handy as I hollowed out the whole thing from a safe distance.

Of course our amazing device couldn't really create the detail necessary to finish the piece inside so I had to really get into my work. Of course this wasn't without it's risks. I thought having tonnes of sand fall on me was a risk worth taking to create my crazy idea. I was confident enough that the sand would hold but then, as part of the Jubilee celebrations lots of army tanks decided to go for a drive on the beach beside our sculpture. I kid you not. I was working inside and suddenly felt the ground rumble. I was out of there like a shot wondering what was collapsing and saw a line of massive tanks drive by. That could have been the end of little old ammonite but I and the sculpture survived the invasion.

I spent way too long inside the sculpture and started to feel very comfortable working away in my own little world. I have to say I was sad when I was finished as making a sculpture from the inside out was a new experience for me.

While in the orange cave I made a crown which wasn't very visible from the outside but, I knew it was there.

I tried to give it the appearance that it was floating by carving a deep shadow under it. These are small details that most people would probably not see but while I was inside I wanted to keep myself busy and prolong my stay.

Orange juice

The outside was carved as a big orange with missing segments being removed by lots of little people. This playing around with scale made our whole sculpture look a lot bigger and give it a bit more story. It was like the little people were in awe of their monarchy but that the Royals provided them with some sort of benefit. Coming from a land which gave up the idea of having a king a long time ago I find it fascinating that countries still have these antiquated symbols, just because of a blood line. Humans are funny.

A large orange skin was providing orange juice to the little people.

Kings of the castle

It was quite a bizarre sculpture with lots to see and it was very popular among the audience and the other sculptors. We were awarded first prize of the coveted Golden trowel for our efforts and I believe the queen paid the sculpture a visit.
I really like working with Wilfred and Edith, we have a similar approach to sculpture and spur each other on when we get to make something together. With this piece, even though it was like two sculptures in one. We really had the whole thing connected by idea and the little people.

In some ways the whole thing was about the fact that even though there are thing much bigger than us we are all connected and it is a symbiotic relationship were we all play a part in keeping society together.

Ps

Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.