NO CHILD'S PLAY HERE
The Two of Us offered a romantic note in the 2011 Crystal Classic competition. Photo by Norman Schimmel
SIESTA KEY'S THIRD ANNUAL CRYSTAL CLASSIC HAS 24 OF THE WORLD'S RENOWNED MASTER SAND SCULPTORS AT WORK ON THE ISLAND'S NO. 1 BEACH
By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor
It really is the stuff of dreams: Not only do you get to play in the sand, but you get to travel all over the world to do it and you earn ac- colades from thousands upon thousands of admirers for your efforts.
How do you get to do this? You become a mas- ter sand sculptor.
Twenty-four of those gifted artists will be in competition this weekend in Sarasota County for the third annual Siesta Key Master Sand Sculpting Competition on the public beach.
They have been hard at work all week — ex- cept for a "rain delay" during thunderstorms on Tuesday.
From countries as diverse as The Nether- lands, Singapore, Germany, Canada, England, Portugal and the United States, they will vie for prize money and bragging rights for the best works of art created from that 99-percent quartz sand that makes Siesta the perfect lo- cation for such an event.
The allure of that sand was what inspired Si- esta's own master sand sculptor, Brian Wigels- worth, to work for years to establish the Crys-
