I can't believe that it took me until 2010 to try my hand at sand raking. Having worked with sand for well over 14 years how I never just got a rake and started doing designs on the beach I'll never know. It is so much less work than compacting sand and then carving it and you can work as big as the tide and canvas will allow.
Of course 2010 was a few years before camera drones became available and the only way to see your work was to have some high vantage point close by.
I had already done a lot of sand sculptures in 2010 and was looking for a change of approach to shake things up for myself. When approached by a tourist board in Bundoran, county Donegal, Ireland to do something on Tullan strand I gave them the options in sculpture but the time I had to work on the massive beach would hardly cause a dint so I suggested that I do some sand raking designs. Of course first I would have to work out how to do it and as sand rakers, like crop circlers are very secretive about their techniques I had to invent my own and learn by trial and error.
Experiment 1, (but first, a tangent)
A few years previously I had tried to make some crop circles. I know, I know you thought that the were made by aliens but in fact they are usually the work of some artists and bored farmers, I say usually because some are obviously made by being not of this planet.
I had a girlfriend at the time and she always took holiday photos with her feet in the shot to prove that she was actually there. She went for a holiday to Australia and in the time she was away I got thinking of a nice way to welcome her home.
Living not too far from the airport I set out one evening with my nephew as an assistant to a large field that I knew was in the path of the landing planes. We flattened out a large footprint in the corn. (Now, I know this was a bit destructive but when I checked the field after harvest all of the corn that we had flattened was also picked up so I could sleep soundly again knowing that no damage was really done).
Unfortunately, because I can't fly I never could make out if we did a good job or not but I messaged my girlfriend and told her she had to sit on the port side of the plane and look out for something as she landed. When I picked her up from the airport, to my amazement and her joy, she said she could see it, a large footprint especially for her. She was ecstatic. As I'm sure you can guess I scored that night.
Anyway, back at the beach I had resolved my technique of marking out a quick footprint using some string and a few poles and re visited my idea as my first foray into sand raking but I wanted to do many and bigger as if they were the footprints of some giant that had gone for a stroll along the long beach.
Each print was 30 meters long and we had achieved 3 of them by the time the tide was coming back in. OK not too impressive but You live and learn.
I did have another assistant nephew on hand but the area of raking was just too big and tide was just too fast for us.
I thought the concept was great and with some more planning and more hands I will definitely do it again one day. And now with amazing drones available to any village idiot like me it could lead to some fantastic footage.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use PeakD 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 Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Mother Earth - sand sculpture
Mermaid - sand sculpture
Stargate - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
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