Sand

Sand, sand and more sand!

If there is one thing that the United Arab Emirates has a lot of it is SAND!!  The country is situated on part of the Arabian Desert, the largest expanse of sand in the world, covering 1 million square miles.  So, we used sand as our art project inspiration! 

There are many ways that sand can be used in the arts.  Sand can come in a myriad of colors and textures and these can be glued to canvas, sculpted into elaborate designs, filled into clear bottles, or used as a medium for light-box drawings!  That last use is very interesting to watch!  Click on this YouTube video to see an very amazing example.

We chose to make the "sand in a bottle" type of project.  This is a super simple project for an amateur, but the amazing artists that sell these sand bottles are going beyond the simple.  Check out the details that they were able to get from simple sand.  We kept it a little more on the simple side for ours :)

The art of Sand
For the project you will need:

• few different colors of sand (Michaels had this nice little sampler for $4)
• clear plastic or glass jars or bottles
• funnel
• spoon

1.  Put the funnel in the mouth of the bottle and spoon in different colors of sand- one at a time.  You could also pour directly from the bag.

2.  Tilt the bottle a little to one side or the other to make waves or a more intricate design.

3.  Fill all the way to the top so that the sand has no room to shift around.

4.  DO NOT SHAKE THE BOTTLE!!







These turned out really pretty and the little baggies of sand held just enough to fill both the bottles.  The kids had a great time and really that's what it's all about!!   

Have a wonderful weekend!!