20P-8 (March 4) Might have had one ball too many...

The tide window opened on Tuesday, but the morning was dry and windy. I bagged the plan.

Wednesday was much better. Calm, cool. Would there be sand?

I had two new tools. One was a modified cake decorating spatula; I'd given it some taper, and sharpened the edges. The other was a good-sized clam shell, sturdy, for making earthworks. It was small enough to fit in the camera bag.

The sand was decent, much like what I've had this year. The pile ended up having an elongated plan, which became part of the design. With a start time of around 9 AM there was no lack of time.

I worked carefully, but not as slowly as I thought. Carving was done in about two hours.

The shell was much too small to work in making the earthworks I'd intended. I bagged that idea and started making balls.

The shelf up near the top seemed to call for a ball, and reminded me of the sculpture I made in 1996 which had little shelves carved in to hold balls. I was thinking of it from the south point of view. When I got around to the east, I realized it was about as anthropomorphic a sculpture as I've ever made. Felidomorphic, yes, but never anthro-. Well, mostly. Unintended here, but I liked it even if it does come close to violating my non-representational  sculpture contract.

I like this one, from all angles. The new spatula worked well on the larger surfaces. I replaced the clam shell with a bigger one that should make earthworks possible. I'm also thinking about a new kind of tool for that. We'll see.

The "Burning Sandwoman" image, reminiscent of the Burning Man effigy and the Lamplighters' Lantern Man they have at the Village. I've felt for a long time that sand sculpture is partly a dance, but seldom have I made a sculpture that dances this nicely itself.