Mermaid - sand sculpture

I have been asked many times which material do I prefer ; sand, snow or ice? To be honest I love them all but when it actually comes to working with the stuff sand will usually be the one that I am most comfortable with 1. Because I have been doing it the longest and most often but 2. and this is a big number two, I hate having to work with gloves.

With sand I can use the dexterity of working with my finger nails to create an eye lid, with ice and snow I am usually dressed like an astronaut to keep warm so, I loose all that control when I make a cut and instead use my whole arm to take aim and shoot. With Ice and snow details are much more difficult and the tactile feeling of the material is something you would rather avoid if you want to keep your fingers.

In everything I do I really hate to put on gloves from working with wood or metal to fixing a dirty car. I just dulls the senses and I feel handicapped. Funny how that word describes it perfectly.

Of course my hands bear the scars of years of abuse although, luckily I still have all my fingers (touch wood!) and I have been blessed with a very quick healing skin.

This sculpture of a mermaid was made in a shopping center near Antwerp, Belgium. I was invited over for just 3 days to make it by Isabelle Decallonne and as she made another piece on the other side of the center I was asked to make a not very interesting mermaid out of these boxes of sand. Continuing on from my last post of the Stargate I felt somewhat confined in what I was making so it was never going to be more than what it was.

I did have fun and enjoyed trying to think of what a mermaid would actually look and function like. She had gills, tentacle hair and webbed hands which are my contributions to the myth. I maybe should have given her some shells to wear but they are not very good for hydrodynamics and sure, censorship is so overrated especially self censorship.

But the most note worthy thing about this project was the sand. naturally it seemed to have a lot of Lime and by the end of the three days both Isabelle's and my hands were shedding skin like we were Zombies. We probably should have started to wear some protection but the damage was already done and the project was at its end.
Luckily, after this great exfoliation my hands were as smooth as a babies bottom ready for my next piece were I knew I wanted my hands in contact with the sand.

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