Sand sculpture competition taking shape

 

JULIA WADE With only five days to go, the countdown is on for Mangawhai’s first sand sculpture competition on March 27 at Mangawhai Heads surf beach.

To highlight the event and spark imaginations, a large sand sculpture depicting a dragon attacking a medieval castle has been on display in Mangawhai Village, on the corner site of Molesworth Drive and Moir Street.

Two local artists - Brett Sutherland and Joanna Bagley - created the design, which took two days and a combined tally of over 36 hours, using a variety of tools to construct and inscribe the details, including ‘spatulas, scrapers, spreaders and egg flippers’.

“Sculpting tools, a large spade, bits of wire, sticks, a spray bottle, lots of different things work well,” Sutherland says. “A bottomless bucket with a cut-out end makes great forms, just mix the sand with water as you pack it into shape and carefully wiggle buckets off the sand. For the best guidance though check out YouTube, that’s what we did.” 

Both Bagley and Sutherland will be judges on the day, and competition organiser Dennis Emsley says there are just a few rules.    

“To comply with the Northland Regional Council regulations, no mechanical equipment is allowed on the beach, and all sand sculptures must be handmade, although competitors can use hand tools, small spades, spatula, trowel, small buckets,” he says. “We also have a backup day and date of Sunday March 28, same timeline, in case we get really bad weather on Saturday March 27. We’ll make the call by 9am on Saturday morning and try and get the local and national radio stations to announce this if we need to.”

“Sculpting tools, a large spade, bits of wire, sticks, a spray bottle, lots of different things work well.”

Local artists Brett Sutherland and Joanna Bagley (right) with competition organiser Dennis Emsley, and the inspiring sand sculpture which took two days and over 36 hours to create.

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