Building dream castles in sand

One of the main attractions people can't afford to miss as they stroll along Muraqqabat Road is the intricately-designed miniature version of mediaeval German castles or Walt Disney fantasy castles made of sand.

Internationally acclaimed sand sculptor Jenny Rossen built and carved the massive sand sculpture in her roadside sand box as part of the Dubai Shopping Festival 2002 treats.

Standing 20-feet-high, the first sand sculpture, which took about 100 cubic metres of sand, is now complete. A second one is being made with the help of the community.

"We're working on the second one every night with the community...there's a lot of fun here between 7 to 12 pm every night," she said.

Originally from Perth, this 35-year-old beach girl from Cottesloe (Western Australia) has made a name in the international scene of sand sculpting and travels the world competing in European and American sand sculpture championships.

During the early stages of building her Dubai masterpiece, she used a front-end loader to dump sand at the base. Jenny had to stand on formwork to carve the intricate designs starting from the top - using builders' tools such as shovels, levels, spreaders, cake decorating knives and dental tools.

Jenny, whose parents are both architects, grew up playing in the sand with her three brothers and five sisters. She takes sculpting with passion and enjoys the competition side of the work.

On Muraqqabat Road, Jenny also gives an impromptu sand castle sculpting workshop to anyone interested - and the opportunity to create images out of water and compacted sand.

"No one can resist the fantasy of a sand sculpture as it takes shape. People can watch the progress of a mound of formless sand turn into something quite beautiful," she said.

"It gives me great pleasure to be able to chat to interested people while I am working away, it's a fantastic art form and I would encourage the people of Dubai to come and see for themselves. I'll be here for the whole Shopping Festival... you won't be able to miss me."

During first few days in Dubai, Jenny painstakingly carved out the detail and, with a straw, blew away the loose sand. "Carving sand is a very slow process and you need to exercise a lot of patience," Jenny comments.

And patience and endurance is what this sand master uses to create sculptures that may sometimes take two months and rise 10 metres tall.

"Sand sculpting is very physical, shovelling sand and packing it down to make it solid to work on," Jenny says.

On Tuesday, she also demonstrated to an Iranian family the basics of her art – how sand and water are put into formwork frames.

Jenny explained how each layer is compacted using a construction compacter or with a hand tamper. This process is repeated until the form is completely full. Another formwork frame is placed on top of the full form, and is then filled and compacted in the same manner.

The forms that she uses can be built into any shape she chooses, and can include many levels of formwork. She then starts carving. Once the top block is done, she removes the next level down and continues the process.

Because the sand is compacted, as it dries it becomes more stable, similar to the way nature makes sandstone, she explained.

Over time, wind and rain will erode a sculpture if it is left exposed, Jenny added. But if the sculpture is housed within a carport it is protected from the elements and can last for years.