Born in 1857 in Iowa, Andrew Clemens contracted encephalitis as a young child and lost his hearing and much of his speech.

He eventually attended the Iowa School for the Deaf, and during his summer breaks visited Pikes Peak State Park along the Mississippi River.

Near the aptly named Sand Cave in the park, Clemens found and collected grains of sand that were vividly colored from naturally occurring iron and minerals that leached into it. He also collected sand from the sandstone cliffs at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

 

He used these to create his sand art without the benefit of glue or artificial coloring and amazingly, he created these mostly upside down, as the bottle’s opening, sealed upon completion, would be at the top.

He used tempered hickory sticks with specially designed tips or fish hooks to deposit and position naturally colored grains of sand inside the bottles. 

Clemens created elaborate designs grain by grain, using only different colors of sand in much the same way an artist uses paints on a palette.

Clemens’ meticulously crafted masterpieces were painstakingly time-consuming to make, with some requiring over a year of labor.

Many have since attempted to duplicate his technique but his works of art remain unmatched. 

 

More of Andrew Clemens’ amazing sand bottles can be found at https://www.antiquetrader.com/art/rare-sand-art-by-andrew-clemens-sets-world-record and https://americanart.si.edu/blog/andrew-clemens-sand-art.