This article was originally written by Lauren Beavis at SWNS — the U.K.’s largest independent news agency, providing globally relevant original, verified, and engaging content to the world’s leading media outlets.
Building sand castles isn’t just for kids: One U.K. dad has been getting in on the summer fun, too. Mark Lewis, 57, is passionate about molding sand into weird and wonderful landscapes, creatures, and buildings, and his creative sculptures — including Spongebob Squarepants and a giant pair of Crocs — have been earning him attention on social media.
He’s also created figures of Star Wars’ Jabba the Hutt and R2-D2, as well as The Lord of the Rings’ Helm’s Deep and Isengard, and he believes “the bigger” the sand sculpture “the better.”
“It’s all about bringing joy into the world and inciting a smile on someone’s face as they discover something unexpected [to] surprise [them] on the beach,” he said. “I also love making things tall. The higher the sculpture, the more impressive it is, and we love it when people look at it thinking, ‘How on earth did they do that!’”
The part-time minister, who was born in Bristol, England, but has lived in York since the age of 18, began his sand sculpting journey with his children back in 2010. Lewis would often take the two boys, Simeon and Ethan, down to the coast, as they had a close friend living nearby.
“We graduated in our thinking from the standard activities you do on a beach, like digging a big hole or making bucket sand castles, and started thinking about making our creations look like something definitive,” he said. “Our first ever sand sculpture was a very poor attempt at Minas Tirith, from Lord of the Rings, then Helm’s Deep — you get the idea!”
His children were very into Star Wars, Lewis explained, so they then started to make Jabba the Hutt, Darth Vader’s helmet, and R2-D2. Gradually, the family got better at their endeavors — and Lewis and Ethan developed “the sand sculpture bug.”
Lewis joked, “Me and the boys always liked trying to build something very unexpected that you wouldn’t find on the beach — I mean, who is going [to] expect to bump into a massive Jabba the Hutt while walking on a U.K. beach.” One youngster who was unfamiliar with Star Wars approached the trio saying, “The T-rex has eaten too many MacDonald’s,” Lewis recalled.
He went on: “The sculptures got more and more ambitious, and what was just a family hobby has sort of gone out of hand and turned into a serious one.”
In 2019, Lewis’ sister bought him a daylong sand sculpture training with a company called Sand In Your Eye, where he learned professional techniques and practices, like which tools to use and when. The workshop dramatically improved what he was able to do, and he’s now filled with more confidence when crafting these sandy works of art, which is a rare practice in the U.K. “It certainly is a niche hobby,” Lewis said.
Of course, the fleeting nature of sand means his creations aren’t left standing on the beach for long, but Lewis isn’t perturbed by that fact. “I do not mind though — by its nature, sand is temporary, it is going to disappear and get washed away, so as long as I have photographs it’s OK!” he said.
Lewis’s recent interactive sand sculpture — of two massive Crocs — recently gained traction on social media, when people took pictures standing in his work and shared them on Facebook.
After being alerted by a friend, Lewis commented on the post and said his pages “blew up,” as he got 125,000 views on his videos in just two days. He added: “It was windy during that week, which is really problematic for sand sculptures because it dries the sand out and it’s hard to do tall stuff. Crocs [are] an in joke within the family, but out of everything I’ve ever made on the beach, it’s pretty random and funny the Crocs are what blew up.”
The sand sculpture that took Lewis the longest amount of time — around nine hours — was a massive Hogwarts castle from the Harry Potter books. “You are limited by the daylight and the tide, or both, so you have to account for that,” he explained. “As a family we made the entire Hogwarts — it took like seven of us over the entire day.”
Lewis also recalled a project wherein he assisted Sand In Your Eye in Cambridge. Jamie Wardley, the lead sculptor at the company, was tasked with building King’s College Chapel, and Lewis was tasked with building The Bridge of Sighs over the river Cam.
The “incredibly intricate job” was the hardest he had ever done, and it took the pair three days. “I had to build it in a shopping center, and we had to carry all the sand and equipment into the building in buckets,” he explained. “It was tons of sand, and two massive vans filled with equipment. We did around three 13-hour days. It was insane and very physical. Architecture is quite difficult to do as there’s a lot of regularity to what you’re sculpting — so it’s a lot less forgiving if you make minor mistakes.”
Lewis admits that though he enjoys the physical aspect of the work, it can be tedious. “I really enjoy getting outside and on the beach — but you are shoveling an awful lot of sand,” he said. “When the tide is against you, there is lots of movement, carrying buckets of water and sand up and down. By the end of the week, after making six sculptures, I was ready for a holiday!”
But while every piece of art he makes is different, the foundations for building are always the same. “You apply exactly the same principles [to] whatever piece you are making,” he said. “For example, you always work top down! If you don’t work like that you’ll be destroying intricate detail you’ve created.”
Lewis plans to continue with his hobby for many more years to come, as he loves creating his sculptures and interacting with people from all walks of life.
“People ask a lot of questions, and I like showing other kids and parents how to do it and inspire others to have a go themselves!” he said. “I’m not a professional — I started like anyone else doing bucket sand castles on the beach. Anybody can have a go and do more than they think!”
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