Hi, and welcome to my blog “Dust to Dust.” I’m Ben Harris, and I will be your guide through the world of sand sculpting, as well as other artistic media in which my family members and I are involved.
Since I was age four, my family has been taking an annual vacation to a small town in Northern Ohio called Lakeside. We started going there in the year 2001 and haven’t gone anywhere else since because we love being there so much. Entire blogs could be made on this vacation destination. Which reminds me, there is one! Check out my little sister’s blog page if you are interested in learning more.
The beaches of Lake Erie are not known for having great sand. What little sand there is is filled with stones, tiny shells, and other debris. But my dad, being the workaholic that he is, couldn’t sit still on the ¼ mile long pier and just watch us play in the lake or on its sandy little beach and help Mom count heads over, and over, and over–1, 2, 3, 4, 5; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5–making sure all of us were alive and well. Dad had to do something, so one day he decided it would be fun to sculpt a little sea turtle in the sand with my oldest brother, Joey. Knowing that they had no actual tools for this project, they decided that instead of moving a bunch of extra sand, they could simply cover a turkey-sized stone bolder with sand and make the sculpt based around that. As they worked on creating this sea turtle, it began gathering attention from the little kids on the beach, and in no time at all they had acquired a few “little buddies,” random sand-sculpting helpers. When the sea turtle was finished, everyone took a step back to admire the little work of art, but after just a few brief seconds of admiration for this 2 ft, x 3 ft. masterpiece, the silence was broken by one of the “little buddies” with a question that would change my family forever: “So, what are we making tomorrow?” That moment set us off on our sand-sculpting journey.
Seventeen years later, here we are, sand sculpting on a professional level for the same vacation destination. You’re probably wondering what happened to the ‘Little Sea Turtle”? Well, when my family returned to the beach the next morning, there was one set of footprints on the top of its shell that created a little crater and left exposed the jagged stone base. The rest of the sculpture was completely intact. Some poor destructive little fellow had hurt himself so badly that he could not continue with the turtle’s demolition. Ouch! And that’s why we never again put anything in or under our sand sculptures, . . . except people, but those stories are for another post.
Lakeside Beach and historic Pavilion. -Photo by Camille C. Harris
Dust to Dust 