World record-holding sand sculptors featured at Pride of the Fox Riverfest

A cloudy sky watched over Ted Siebert and Buck Hoover at work Thursday in downtown St. Charles.

Every kid knows water is the destroyer of dreams come to life as sand castles, but the two men don't fear the gray skies. They've been there and done that in several countries on multiple continents.

For the next few days Siebert and Hoover, better known as the Woodstock-based Sand Sculpture Company, will create perhaps the largest and most unusual artistic element in the history of the city's Pride of the Fox Riverfest. A 40-ton pile of sand is their medium. By sometime on Saturday, it will become a sculpture involving a knight, a castle and an ogre holding an ice cream cone.

"It's just medieval stuff, you know, fantasy," Siebert said.

The pair worked on the sculpture while standing on a 360-degree wooden scaffolding of sorts that made the early stages of the creation look more like a ziggurat than a castle. But that was the status of the sculpture with only a couple hours of work performed on the mound of sand sitting in the city hall's parking lot. It'll take about another 60 hours to get to the finished product, Siebert said.

The rain is not of particular concern as each stage of the sculpture is sprayed with a biodegradable mixture of water and Elmer's glue. Trowels, shovels and levels of various sizes are the only other tools used to bring the vision to life.

Siebert, Hoover and the other sculptors in the company have participated and won titles in several major sand sculpting competitions, including the World, Canadian and U.S. National Championships. They also own world records for both the tallest and longest sand sculptures, created under the team name "Totally in Sand." That includes one sculpture that stretched for more than 6 miles.

"I'm just coming off a five-week road trip, so it's kind of nice to do a job close to home," Siebert said. "I was in Taiwan for three weeks and Dallas right after that. So it's nice to have my own bed back."

That means fans of art or the unusual can catch a well-rested Siebert and team at work throughout the Pride of the Fox Riverfest. The festival begins today at 11:30 a.m. today and ends at 9 p.m. Sunday.