During my recent wanderings, I found a duck shaped snowball maker. I bought it for my mother, who loves ducks, despite the fact that if it ever snows where we live it’ll mean there’s something seriously wrong with the weather.

Sans snow, we took this new toy to the beach and proceeded to make some pretty funny duck adjacent lumps of sand. I was especially proud of our best result, which actually looked like a duck (if someone had amputated most of its bill).

Needless to say, if I was to attempt to create a sand sculpture, the result would be abstract at best.

You won’t find the sandcastles from your childhood in this book. These sand sculptures aren’t constructed with a mere bucket and shovel. The tools of this trade can include “bulldozers, pneumatic tampers, generators, cranes, front-end loaders, and huge water pumps to carry water to the top”. Todd Vander Pluym, president of Sand Sculptors International (SSI), has even created a castle that survived a 6.2 earthquake!

“Although there are only two ingredients - sand and water - the design possibilities are endless. With imagination and creativity, some engineering and design knowledge, and possession of the right tools, today’s sand artist creates ephemeral, incredible, complex, and “how did they do that with only sand and water” artwork.”

My brain stayed on ‘WOW!’ for the entire book so it’s difficult to choose favourites. Currently, I’m obsessed with Guy-Olivier Deveau’s ‘Bleeding’, David Ducharme and Marielle Heessels’ ‘My Better Half’ Matt Long’s ‘SHARK!’ and Jeff Strong’s ‘Consuming Pastime’.

I’m sure my favourites will change every time I revisit this book. I need to find a sand sculpture competition so I can see the artists at work.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Schiffer Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to Barbara Purchia, E. Ashley Rooney, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., and Netgalley for this advanced reader copy of “Contemporary Sand Sculpture” for a free review.

This book ended up being 500% more than I expected when I requested it. This is an amazing artistic tradition, with championships all over the world, and it is a renown art form that I’ve never known about until now. This book displays the best of the best and several of their intricate, gorgeous sculptures from around the world.

A perfect coffee table book for a beach house, or, truly, any house that appreciates art can be found in all the world if you just look. It’s definitely inspired me to look up the closest sand sculpture competitions near me (San Castle Days & AIA Sandcastle) to see some more of this up close in my future.

From historical facts to amazing pictures, this book makes you travel around around castles and magical figures in a sunny beach.

A stunning collection of sand sculptures that honestly had me gawking. I had no idea this was such a huge thing in the art scene, nor did I know that it was possible to make sand sculptures so huge in real life. I am completely in awe over the beauty and details that these artists have put into their creations. This is a must have for any beach house. Truly amazing!

I have received a much appreciated digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book features some of the most amazing sand sculptures I have ever seen. From small sand sculpture to life sized. Cartoon characters to real life like looking people. Everything you can imagine and some you cannot made strictly out of sand and water. There also also some interviews with some of the artists and more. Very informative and very beautiful pictures.



I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.

The photographs in Contemporary Sand Sculpture are visually beautiful and a tribute to the creativity within us. These sand sculptures are AMAZING!! WOW!!!

This book would make a good gift for anyone who loves photography, the arts, the beach, etc., etc., etc.!

I feel very blessed that NetGalley and Schiffer Publishing gave me the opportunity to view this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Sand sculptors certainly deserve respect as artists. They create magic using an unlikely medium only to see hours of meticulous work swept away with the elements. <i>Contemporary Sand Sculpture</i> is a great introduction to major sand artists and their creations. It made me want to grab a flight to the nearest beach hoping to catch one of them at their work.

These artists are amazing, such beautiful and detailed work, all made to last such a sort space of time. The Sculptures could easy grace a building or galley for time perpetuate, yet these sculptures are happy for their work to be seen, enjoyed and then disappear in a blink of an eye.
Absolutely wonderful book that brings us such wonderful works, that otherwise I would never see or know they or the artists existed.

CONTEMPORARY SAND SCULPTURES is a photographic collection of award winning sand sculptures, as well as an anthology of stories of their creators. Never before has a photography book of artwork in any medium made me want to book a series of vacations the way this book did. I literally found myself looking up all the local, drive-able locations online and planning day trips/overnights for this upcoming season's competitions, and sending an e-mail to friends who lived slightly outside of driving distance, yet within walking distance of the competition near them, to see if I could come stay with them during this fall's competition. In other words, it was sort of incredible just to look through.

Contemporary Sand Sculpture is a fantastic read, especially if you’re a fan of the artwork (naturally) and would love to see some of the actual artists behind the pieces. It includes an interesting introduction, which explains the author’s perspective on the art (as well as their own additions to the style).
This book includes multiple artists as well as a small sampling of each of their best works. I never would have dreamed that there are that many sand sculptors out there, but it’s wonderful to see. It hadn’t actually occurred to me before reading this novel that there were actual companies that got paid for making sand sculptures (I had known that there were artists that dedicated their lives to it – but I’m ashamed to admit I hadn’t thought much more on the matter), so this fact along with many others was mind blowing for me. I’m so happy I read this, not only did I get to see a lot of beautiful photos, but I got to learn a little bit about a bunch of artists I had previously been unaware of.

A really interesting book on sand sculpting and the artists who create masterful works of art all from sand. The book is easy to follow, and offers insights into several artists who describe their start, and their passion for sand sculpting. The pictures are gorgeous and inspiring, and I was surprised to see many Canadian artists, one even from my hometown! I didn't realize there even was a sand sculpting scene in my area and learned a lot from reading this. Even just looking at the pictures was inspiring considering my own limited beach art. Very interesting read.