The Opportunities In Colored Desert Sand

Deserts make up an amazing 33% of the world’s total landmass. This is a lot of wasted space considering there is hardly any organic life in deserts. It is even more disheartening when you consider that deserts mainly consists of desert sand.

I didn’t call the sand in the desert as just “sand.” I called it “desert sand.” There is a reason why. Up until a few years ago, I just like many other people believe that sand is the same everywhere.

Then, I had the brilliant idea: “Why can’t we use sand in the desert to create concrete?” Then to my disappointment upon doing minimal research online, I found out that desert sand is not actually ideal as concrete mix.

This is because desert sand is much, much smoother than ordinary sand. It would not mix well with cement to form concrete. Still, this information didn’t disappoint me. I began to research online if there were scientific developments in mixing desert sand with cement.

I was delighted to find that there were indeed scientific developments in the field of using desert sand for concrete, but don’t be overjoyed yet. Although there have been developments, they are not on a commercial level yet.

According to what I have researched, the scientists who managed to make desert sand usable for concrete did so by adding other materials to the desert sand and cement mix. The process and the materials used are not yet commercially viable to compete with the ordinary cement and sand mix.

And why is this information important? This information is being told to inform anyone who is reading this article that desert sand is simply not ideal as a concrete ingredient. A reader might be thinking of buying desert sand for such purposes and might not know this information yet.

Another thing you might want to consider is that besides desert sand, other materials such as hay and waste plastic is already being considered as a more logical replacement for common sand.

Now that I have stifled many a person’s grand design of using desert sand as a concrete ingredient, let us now consider something more humbler in terms of using desert sand: As decoration.

Watch a few videos in YouTube about making Terrariums, especially about desert terrariums, and chances are, you would come across desert sand bagged in plastic bags and sold in gardening shops.

To discuss about the details of making a desert terrarium is beyond the scope of this article, but to put it simply, desert sand is put on the top layer of the terrarium soil not for any other uses but mainly for decorative purposes.

But it’s not only desert plant terrariums, but also for any decorations that involve the desert. Desert sand may be used as the base in enclosed cages for desert insects and reptiles such as tarantulas and snakes.

Desert sand can also be used in dioramas especially ones that depict the desert. But as you can see, the uses for desert sand I have just mentioned are for the most part a very specialized decoration. There is simply too much desert sands in the world for this small specialized use.

As the name implies, colored desert sand is merely desert sand with a color. The color could be anything. It could be white, red, yellow, black and so on. Coloring dyes or food color is usually used to color desert sand.

I have found a simple but very clear YouTube video regarding how to make colored desert sand and some samples of it’s decorative uses:

YouTube Video: How to make COLORED SAND with Food Coloring ~ DIY Colored Sand for Sand Art ~ Sand Art for Kids

To make colored desert sand, you merely apply directly a small portion of color dye or food color to your fine and clean desert sand and mix the two together. It’s as simple as this. There are no other ingredients or special equipments needed.

I looked into a local e-commerce site and found that colored sand is being sold in small pouches and are usually sold in groups. Think of selling colored sand as selling crayon. You sell them in different colors but not as one color only.

At least now, we have found a more commercial use for desert sand, as an art material. Compared to people who own desert terrariums or those who use desert sand for dioramas, there are way, way more people who are into art and arts and crafts.

If you are a good enough marketer, you can market colored sand in bulk and sell them to such institutions as schools for young children and arts and crafts schools. Of course, you need to convince the people running these institutions that colored sand is good as an art material.

You need to convince these people that it is just as good as an art material as compared to other art materials such as colored ink or colored paper. This might be harder to do as colored ink and paper are the most widely used art materials.

Another thing you have to consider when marketing colored sand is that it is harder to handle than colored ink and paper. Sand can get to someone’s eyes especially to a relatively carefree young child. Consider this when you are marketing colored sand to minors.

Just what kind of art can be made from colored sand? I don’t know if YouTube would give you the same results when you type in the search keyword: “colored sand,” but at least in my case, it showed me videos of art that can be made from colored sand.

Rangoli is the Indian term for colored sand drawing on a flat surface. Simply put, colored sand of varying colors are put in a flat surface to make a drawing. They can be very large and very intricate.

To know what a Rangoli looks like, you simply type the Google search keyword: “Rangoli” and go to image search. You would find plenty of examples of Rangoli art. It seems this form of art is quite popular especially among Indians.

There are people who make a living being Rangoli artists, although there are Western artists who specialize in Rangoli, the more prominent ones seems to be located in India where the art form could have begun.

I have been searching online for ways to preserve a Rangoli drawing, but Rangoli seems to be a not permanent art form. This means there is continuing demand for it to any person or group who wants this kind of art form displayed in any of their flat surfaces.

The only way I can see for now of a Rangoli being preserved is by taking a picture of it or by installing it in a permanent storage space like a museum. This is another income generating idea Rangoli artists should explore if they haven’t already done so.

A more permanent art that can be made from colored sand is bottled sand art. If you Google the search keyword: “bottled sand art” for example and go to the image search section, you would be shown a lot of images of intricately arranged colored sand encased in a bottle.

There are even YouTube videos showing how artists create intricate drawings using only simple poking tools used to rearrange colored sand to make a drawing or a pattern. A simple YouTube keyword search using the search words: “colored sand” is all that is needed for example.

I did a quick research on the prices of these art items and found out that they can be as cheap as $US 10.00 but can go as high as more than a hundred US dollars. There might be a few reasons for this price disparity.

One of this could be the quality of the glass bottle which holds the colored sand art. The more intricate and quality of the glass bottle, the higher is the price to be expected from these art items.

The main reason however why these colored sand in bottles are expensive is because of the intricateness of the colored sand drawing. Just how expensive? The sand bottle art depicting the image of Andrew Clemens for example was sold for $US 956,0000 . This is how expensive sand art can be.

A much more permanent art form for colored sand as compared to colored sand art in bottles is colored sand art on paper. This art form just entails the gluing or pasting of colored sand in paper to create a drawing.

I have found several products like these aimed at children and arts and crafters. The ones I saw come with a pre-drawn design on the paper and all that the child or the arts and crafter needs to do is to put the corresponding colored sand in it.

This is the kind of product that everyone could do. All that one needs is sand, coloring dye or food color and a black and white printer at the minimum. With these simple items, you already have a toy that can be sold to anyone.

I have tried to find colored sand art on paper online that is worth a lot of money, but as I write this article, I still have to find one.

As the name implies, this is a kind of art that relies on the movement of sand in a downward direction to create an animated effect. Compared to the other art forms for colored sand, this entails a bit more costs in terms of materials.

You have to create a glass or a transparent container for the sand and you may also have to create an actual painting to go with your colored sand. This is definitely not the right product for a beginner entrepreneur in terms of colored sand art.

I have tried to find large scale use of colored sand but failed so far. There seems to be no buildings or houses that decoratively use colored sand on a large scale. This could be as simple as pouring colored sand in the walkway of someone’s house or building.

I think this is a concept not yet thought out by home designers and decorators. Just imagine this situation. Everyone in your neighborhood has a green lawn with brown colored soil or gray colored rocks decorating one’s footpath. This is an all too familiar sight.

Now imagine if instead of a brown colored soil or gray colored rocks you have a blue or red colored sand decorating your footpath. Your house would easily stand out especially if the sand color is the same as your house color.

The same goes for the front lawns of buildings or any location on display. You can have a certain color that people could identify with your company or you yourself. IBM and Facebook for example use the same blue color, would a blue colored sand design improve their brand recognition with people?

Or just imagine green colored sand. Wouldn’t a garden look more “greener” or healthier if even the surface layer of the garden is colored green? I haven’t seen such uses for colored sand, but anyone can see the potential of the idea.

Desert sand is a big part of our environment. It roughly covers a third of the world’s landmass. We should find more ways in utilizing it. One of the best ways humans have utilized desert sand is to color it and use it for decoration or as art.

One of the ways we can use colored sand on a large scale is to use it for home and building decorations. We can for example use it in place of gravel or soil to bring more characters to the structures we own.

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