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Jenny on the beach

IT’S NOT often you can make your hobby your job, especially when your passion is sand castles! But Australian Jenny Rossen has managed to do just that. Known as 'Jenny the sandcastle girl', she bases herself in Dubai and Australia ...

and currently has sand castle creations at both Mall of the Emirates and Festival City.

Her work isn’t just a couple of buckets of sand patted down, they can be everything from elaborate castles lit up with tea candles to a boat or a chair. Jenny grew up making sand castles on the beach and has become one of the best sand sculpters around with international awards including Sand Sculpture World Championship.

'We don’t build sand sculptures, we carve them out,' she said. The work is mentally straining and one false cut could see the mountain of sand come tumbling down. 'It’s sort of like gambling,' Jenny said. 'Everytime you take a cut it might fall down. Like pick up sticks. The closer you get to finishing the more dangerous it is.'

Similarly with sand castles, the better you became at sculpting and the more creative you became, the more likely all you had worked on could fall down. 'It wouldn’t be sand castles if it didn’t fall down,' she said. 'That’s why a cut through is so special. When you can see just sand and water standing there with nothing to support it.'

Jenny realised this could become her job - creating sand castles exhibits or advertising ploys – and moved to Dubai in 2000. 'It was just really a hobby,' she said. 'But now there’s no difference between work and hobby.'

A professional display could take anywhere from two days to four months. 'The most exciting one is always the one I’m working on and I always try and make it better than the last.' She said her work had a fantastic audience in Dubai particularly among large families. 'All age groups love it,' she said. 'Across cultures, people from different backgrounds and incomes.'