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.