How cool would it be to pour sand into water without it getting wet?! With multiple colors, you can create a host of fun designs and sculptures under water.
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MAGIC SAND
SAFETY KEY:
+ Fumes from the spray + Flammable
SKILL LEVEL:
EASY
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
APPROXIMATE TIME:
48 hours (two nights of overnight drying needed)
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
+ Latex (or rubber) gloves—really any gloves that protect your hands, but also allow you to easily break up the sand without it sticking to the gloves
+ Bag of quartz sand
+ Large tin or aluminum baking sheet
+ NeverWet Multi-Surface Liquid Repelling Treatment by Rust-Oleum (two spray cans included; one is the basecoat and one is the topcoat)W
PRO TIP: You can use a silicone-based spray as well, but I’ve found that NeverWet spray works best.
LET’S BEGIN
PREP THE SAND
1. Scatter a few small handfuls of sand on a baking sheet. Make sure you don’t put too much, or the spray won’t be able to saturate all the sand.
WATERPROOF THE SAND
1. For this step, you’ll want to go outside to avoid inhaling the fumes from the can. Once outside, spray the sand that has been distributed flatly across the pan. Make sure you spray evenly across the entire surface of the sand.
WARNING:
Because the fumes from the spray could potentially be harmful, make sure you spray down the sand outside. Let the sand air-dry, as the waterproof spray is flammable and you do not want to try to speed up the drying process by adding any heat. Be sure to wear gloves as well since you’ll be breaking up the sand with your hands after it’s been waterproofed.
2. Let it dry outside overnight.
3. Once it has dried, use your hands to break up any clumps that have formed so the sand is made up of fine particles. Then stir up the sand and spread it evenly across the tin sheet so that you are re-spraying parts that you did not reach in the first go-round. You will want to do this a few times to get a couple of layers of coating on the sand.
4. Let the sand dry overnight again.
TEST IT!
1. Now that your sand is dry, break up any clumps so it returns to a fine powder. You can test it out by putting a small bit of sand on a spoon and dunking it in a bowl of water, or you can dump all of it in the water to see the different formations it makes.
2. If your sand gets a little wet when you pull it out, squeeze it off in your hand and then let it dry on a paper towel or tray. It will return to its water-repellent state once dry.
PRO TIP: If you want to add a little extra fun to your sand, you can use an alcohol-based ink and an airbrush to color the sand before you go through the waterproofing steps.
FUN FACT: Magic sand is able to clump up in water because of the hydrophobic nature of the waterproofing spray. Once sprayed, the sand becomes hydrophobic as well, causing the sand to cluster, which minimizes the amount of space water has to penetrate the sand.
