Zach Pine Nature Sculpture - Event Heading

Secrets of Sand Globes Revealed
Free Instructional Workshop and Collaborative Art Installation

Stinson Beach, CA; September 1, 2008

I've refined my technique for making globes of sand over the past nine years. In five minutes I can teach the basic technique; it usually takes beginners about ten minutes to make a grapefruit-sized globe. The globes have an evocative "planetary" quality that has inspired me to use them as elements of many nature sculptures over the years.

At this event, I taught everyone in sight to make sand globes (and encouraged them to teach others!) Then, as in all my collaborative art-with-nature events, we assembled them without a predetermined plan in a spontaneously evolving art installation on the beach.

See this movie of the event (click here for the low-resolution version on YouTube if the previous link doesn't work well for you), and this photo gallery of the event.

These movies show basics of sand globe making and what happens when globes are encountered by unsuspecting beachgoers. (Click here for the low-resolution versions on YouTube if the previous links don't work well for you)

The intermolecular force that attracts water molecules to each other and to the grains of sand is the "glue" that holds the globe together. (See this video of water in outer space to get an idea of the strength of attraction that water has to itself.)

photo of zach making sand globe
 photo of big sand globe and wave at shore