How to they make pictures out of sand in bottles?

Question

A friend of mine has just come back from Egypt and she has bought me a bottle with a sand picture in, it has a camel on one side and another diferrent picture on the other side. How do they do it? fascinating!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

One of the masters of this was Andrew Clemens, an Iowa man who worked in the late 19th century  -- here are a couple of his bottles:

http://www.go-star.com/antiquing/cowans_...

And a little of his working technique:

http://clipclop.tripod.com/ref/sandartis...

and more, including some of his tools:

http://members.tripod.com/clipclop/andre...

Answer 2

Yes, I know what you mean.

I think they do it layer by layer. It's a veeeeeeeery complicated task.

Answer 3

i know, i tried doing them once. takes a lot of practice!

they do it by putting in layer by layer of sand, and in each layer they vary the colors. E.g. put half ounce of white sand in first layer, then put one ounce of red in the 2nd and so on....sometimes they use funnels n pipettes to insert a certain shape.

takes a lot of practice and tools but if u wanna start...http://www.sandartsupplies.com/index.htm

they don't do camel shapes though...but look at 'the beach' bottle and 'the face' bottle in the website! So pretty!

Answer 4

Go to your local toy store and look for 'Magic Sand' it has magnetic properties I think and I think you can also put it in water and pull it out dry still !!! VERY COOL!!! Went looking for some a few months ago for my neice without much luck!!! I thinkits by that brand with the moose cartoon! the one that looks like bullwinkle!!! =)

Answer 5

With a camera.

haha just kidding- they poke a thin stick thing into the sand to make it fall and create patterms

Answer 6

I've seen arty things with just colored sand in layers but not anything that forms actual shapes and pictures.  It sounds cool!

Maybe someone will know and can post a link or two.  I'd love to see what they look like.

Answer 7

Very carefully.

No, really. Just a tiny little bit at a time, a ton more tedious than slopping it in at the county fair. If you really want to blow your mind, check out sand mandalas.