Kali Bradford – Sequim Daily Photo

Sand Art, 2 of 2

Kali Bradford and Barry Swires were working last Sunday on a new sand sculpture outside the Innovation Law Group on Sequim Avenue. This piece celebrates Sequim and our upcoming lavender festival in July. This piece replaces one I showed you last September.

I love the old truck that Barry is working on. It will have pots of flowers in its cargo area when finished.

I first introduced you to Kali last summer as she completed a sand sculpture for our 2014 lavender festival. Since then she has added paint to her work. She’s found that people looking at painted portions of sculptures now will comment and point out detail more readily.

Sand art, 1 of 2

Local sand sculptor Kali Bradford completed two pieces for our 120th Irrigation Festival recently. The one above is near Adagio Bean and Leaf on East Washington.

This irrigation-themed sculpture is near Lucky Star Consignment on West Washington. Kali colors parts of her sculptures now and adds living flowers. She has found that it enables people to more readily see and recognize her work.

I especially liked the “heart water” detail.

Tomorrow I’ll show you another of Kali’s work as it’s being sculpted.

The sand artist

I ran into Kali Bradford last week as she put finishing touches on one of her latest sand sculptures on West Washington Street next to Lucky Star Consignment Clothing.

Kali wasn’t enthusiastic about posing for a portrait, though she didn’t exactly refuse. So I snapped a quick shot as she talked about her art (her work, which she has created in several Sequim locations, is all volunteer and unpaid), her work as a health educator, and her challenge to local vandals (take one of her art classes and channel energy positively).

Kali debated whether to paint parts of this sculpture. Some people, she said, don’t “get” her sand sculptures and recognize the forms in them.

I returned a couple of days later to see her completed work, this mermaid…unpainted.

A new castle in town

It started out as 12 yards of glacier sand trucked in from Silverdale on June 7th, poured into an empty lot next to Adagio Bean and Leaf Coffeehouse. This is what it looked like as of July 4th, after about 100 person hours of work. The artist is Kali Bradford of Sequim, who has been constructing it in anticipation of the Lavender Faire and Festival. As you can see, it’s quite detailed.

Bradford has sculpted in sand competitions around the world and intends to finish on July 17th, by which time another estimated 100 person hours will have gone into in the work. To prevent erosion, the piece is sprayed with nine parts of water to one part of white glue. Though one would think rain would melt it, water runs through, packing more tightly the flat surfaces of the sand granules. Bradford suggests that the piece could last until the weather freezes.