I home!

[Brandi]

i am back from Philly. Had a few days rest about a week off. I am feeling better not so tired from work now. But off to Laughlin NV to do anoth sand sculpture of a river boat and get this "playboy bunnies". I have no idea why they want this but hey it is paying the bills.
Here are a couple picks of my project in Philly. It went really well. And the weather is really nice right now. Not like the 107 I am headed to on Monday. And we are outside. I hate heat!

Silver's notice anything?
I am afraid though i don't have much energy to even deal my computer right now so i don't know how much time i will linger around. Forgive me if i don't respond to a ? it is not on purpose.:D

[mimitabby]

how the heck do you get the sand to do that? glue???

[Duck on Wheels]

Wow!!!

[Zen]

Of all the nerve!
Posting such provocative photos and not being able to answer questions!!

How do i get me a job like that?

[Mr. Bloom]

Silver's notice anything?


I called SilverSon over to see this...his chin dropped as he said "WOW"

[jobob]

Goodness! Cool stuff !

[snapdragen]

Very cool Brandi!

[Bikingmomof3]

Fantastic Brandi. :cool:

[Running Mommy]

Where are you gonna be? I may have to drive up so I can say hi. It's not too far from here, and i could use the excuse of needing to go to Vegas for work. Yes... I do really do work for our Vegas shop, so it's not that far fetched! ;)

[KnottedYet]

Oh, man! That is amazing! How do you get the sand to stay there?

[dingster1]

Way cool!!!:eek:

[Brandi]

Where are you gonna be? I may have to drive up so I can say hi. It's not too far from here, and i could use the excuse of needing to go to Vegas for work. Yes... I do really do work for our Vegas shop, so it's not that far fetched! ;)

I would love a visit. We are going to do the next sculpture for the colorado Bell casino. We will be there from the 22nd to the June 2nd. Please come and visit. How do you deal with the heat? This is going to be tough. I am not used to such hot temps. We will probably work early in the morning then when it gets super hot will might just break for a couple hours then work in the early evening hours till it gets to dark.

[Brandi]

Of all the nerve!
Posting such provocative photos and not being able to answer questions!!

How do i get me a job like that?
Ask me anything you want.
The sand is river bed sand the is very fine and fairly clean. It is compacted with a machine called a whacker. The sand is put inside of box's to be compacted by us on site. When one box is filled we put another on top of that and compact again. When we are done it looks like a big wedding cake. We take one layer of box's off at a time and sculpt our way down the pile.
The sand stays because of the compacting and the fact that we don't let anyone touch it.
I hope I answered any ? you might have had. Oh we do this full time except winter. And we do about 30 -40 of these a year all different sizes. Our largest to date is 5,000 ton's it took about 2 months to complete.

[Zen]

How long have you been doing this?
Do you sculpt using any other medium?
Does it bother you at all that something you've put such effort into is temporary or do you just think of it along the lines that everything on earth is temporary?

Your catavatar looks exactly like my dear departed Lappin' Gravy.

[Duck on Wheels]

Ah yes, a whacker. Such a rarified technical name. :D :cool:

[NJBikeGal]

CRAZY! I just passed that on my way home from a race over the Ben Franklin Bridge this morning!! And here, I find out that it is a fellow TE Forum poster! ROCK ON, Brandi! I wish I would have known you would be in Philly...would have invited you to join my team on a ride! Maybe next time...

Beautiful work!

[Melstar]

They are beautiful!


Ah yes, a whacker. Such a rarified technical name. :D :cool:

Lol.

[Brandi]

ahhh thank you sooo much.
I am sorry I missed you too!

[Brandi]

How long have you been doing this?
Do you sculpt using any other medium?
Does it bother you at all that something you've put such effort into is temporary or do you just think of it along the lines that everything on earth is temporary?

Your catavatar looks exactly like my dear departed Lappin' Gravy.

I don't seem to have time for any other medium. And I have been sculpting sand now for 20 years this November. I was 19 yrs old. And really started doing it full time in 1994. and i just don't get attatched. it has always been this way never different so i just don't think about it.

[Zen]

I can understand that.
If I were given an assignment to photograph something and the negs were destroyed it wouldn't matter that much. But if it were something heartfelt and inspired it sure would.

[Brandi]

If you get attached in this business you won't do well. We have had artist of other med come and work with us and they have a hard time with it and usually don't stay with us long.
We are like the monks in asia who make the sand mandela's. They spend way more time on thier stuff then we do and destroy them when they are finished. you have to be almost buddist like in this line of work. Which I like. Sounds wierd I know but it is the process of doing the sand sculpture that we enjoy and finishing it too. But once we are done I am ready to move on to the next one.

[Jo-n-NY]

Brandi, your work is truely amazing. Let me know if you are ever on Long Island.

~ JoAnn

[Brandi]

Denise (Running mommy) came and saw me today at my job in Laughlin. It was so cool meeting here and her family. My first te gal I have met. What a sweety! She is going tp post a picture of her and I at my sculpture on the site here. Her husband and son we really sweet too. To come all this way to see me was so nice. I needed the visit too. I called Denise by the wrong name when i fisrt saw her (so stupid) but she let it go (thank goodness).
A big thank you to Denise and her family for coming by and giving me a break!

[Pika]

your sculptures- and your attitude toward them- it is a gift to be "in the moment" loving what you do, as you do it. Not just the finish, not just the beginning....
It is something I aspire to:)

[Brandi]

I have to remind myself about how the whole thing works sometimes. Where i am right now has lowered my outlook on the humin race at the moment. This town doesn't even recycle anything. So much waste. At least my sand can be used again! Found the bright side I guess. It is so hot in Laughlin and sooooooooc crowded!

[Running Mommy]

Yes we did stop by to see Ms. Brandi and her cutie pie hubby. Boy I get the feeling that I could hang out with them and drink a few beers while camping after a long day of mtn biking...:D
Actually her hubby reminded me a lot of my bro. He's a laid back kinda guy. My bro is a commercial fisherman by trade, lives on a sailboat and surfs... Can't get much more laid back. I just kept thinking how he would dig building castles as well.
Anyway, we are still in Vegas, so I can't post the pics yet. But I will when I get home. As well as another thread about our trip. We rode the red rock canyon yesterday. All I can say is I'M A SEA LEVEL KINDA GIRL!!! The 3800 ft elevation climbing to 4700 did me in!!
But yes it was VERY cool meeting Brandi. And her momenary lapse in my name was NOTHING!! I'm terrible with peoples names! And it was HOT out, so I'll blame it on the heat!!:p

[Brandi]

It's still hot here. I have bought a long sleeve rayon shirt that is covering me up more. I have 45 sun block on and I am still getting dark. Not burned but stil.... The shirt has kept me pretty cool. Any other fabric's that might be good for this kinda of heat and sun? I am taking any suggestions.
I can totally picture campng and biking with you too. Man that sounds so good right now. And my season isn't even half over yet. Just to go for a quike ride right now would be nice.