To help me I assembled a crack team of the best in the business. Two old friends who have a complementary skill base so that between us we have the chance to build something structurally sound (Clr is an engineer), creatively top notch (well I'll have a bash at that sort of thing) and on a beach (Lizzie's mum lives by the seaside and was happy to accommodate us for the weekend): the perfect team!
But first I needed to do my research. For my birthday last year Lizzie gave me an amazing book about how to build impressive sandcastles.
Now you may be under the false impression that all it takes is a bucket and a spade well let me tell you that is most certainly not the case. It's time to throw away all your old notions and learn the superior method that will lead you to be able to make your very own "impressive sandcastle". The first thing to do is to gather together your tools. The book has 6 pages of these but we scraped together our set by raiding our kitchens and Lizzie's mum's tool shed and under-stairs-cupboard.
From Wallpaper scrapers to an ice cream scoop and novelty straws our tool kit was ready so we headed to the beach to select the ideal spot. Now the next thing to learn is about location. For your ideal build you should look at where the tide line is and build about a metre above this point. This way hopefully your sandcastle won't wash away but you're near enough to the sea to have a water source. Dry sand is no good for sandcastle building I'll have you know!
The next task is to dig a hole. As you dig down your hole should fill up with water (if you're too far from the sea this won't happen). You then mix up the sand and water at the bottom to create your building material. If you think about it cement mixing isn't too different. You should also build yourself a sand base for your castle out of normal sand - you can use the sand you dug out of the hole for starters. Once you have your mixed sand at the right consistency you do a clever scoop and drop movement onto the top of your base and give it a little jiggle - this bit is important as it bonds the layers of sand together to make it stronger. You then add more of these sand patties on top of each other until you have what looks a little like a large stack of pancakes.
In the picture above Lizzie is performing a vital role of warming up the hands after they'd been in the cold water. I discovered immediately that I was not suited to the job of making sand pancakes as I couldn't stand the pain of March sea water temperatures where as Clr has poor circulation and a much higher pain tolerance than me. Plus she has degrees in building stuff so clearly is more adept at this part of the job. And yes I did insist on my team wearing matching coats ;-)
As you can see from the shot on the left once your stack is at the height you want it you level off the top before doing your first bit of carving - the roof. You always carve from the top of your castle downwards or else (as Lizzie discovered later in the day to her horror) your carving is buried under the sand that falls from above.
We went initially for a pyramid roof and then undercut it to make the walls using the stripping tool (that's a wallpaper stripping tool for any rude readers; not something with tassels on).
Once you're happy with your tower you can add other features like doors, windows and by stacking up more pancakes you can create a staircase.
And don't forget to decorate your castle as you see fit too with scalloped edged roofing and small knights...
Now you may already be thinking "What an impressive Sandcastle!". We were delighted when a passer by declared those exact words at this point. But we didn't stop there. This was merely the test castle to try out our techniques. No, this time we built a much bigger base and placed three stacks on top for three towers.But with the tide now coming in; rain coming down and only a couple of hours left until night fall would we manage to build our impressive castle in time? Well, we certainly gave it our best shot. Here are some pics for you to judge for yourself.
(I'm blowing away stray sand here not sucking it up!)
I'm sure if we'd had more time we'd have made it even more impressive but that's one of the brilliant things about building a sandcastle, it's a limited time only offer as you can see from the sea fast coming in behind me in this shot. Granted our castle may not look a patch on the one on the cover of the book but we're a long way from being professional sand sculptors and regardless of what anyone else thinks I was impressed with our amateur efforts. A great team effort and a whole lot of fun! Give it a try yourself this summer and do send me your photos too - I'll make a gallery of castles for us all to be impressed by.
