Diamonds and Toads Week: Sand Sculptures

The images in this post were taken by mleigh1005 at Webshots at Sand World 2005 in Travemuende. I love this image of the kind sister, whether it be from Mother Holle as labeled or more likely Diamonds and Toads since the one coin is perched rather uncomfortably in her mouth and the rest appear to have fallen from that source. Still it was made in Germany and the text is in German so I won't argue with Mother Holle either!

Either way, I was tickled with this one since it is rare to find art and illustration of any variants of the tale in comparison with others. Especially frustrating considering just how many variants there are.

The image also once again reiterates just how much the gift of gold and diamonds falling from your mouth is truly a double-edged sword, a curse more than blessing. A few authors have played with this theme including Heather Tomlinson in her new novel and Michael Cadnum in his short story "Toad Rich" and Nalo Hopkinson in "Precious." See the Modern Interpretations of Diamonds and Toads for more information.

Finally, this wasn't the only fairy tale sand sculpture to be seen either, so I'm adding more below. I won't label these, but let you play the old "identify the fairy tale game" yourself. You can click through to see the label and the images in much larger size. Also, I am only including my favorites. There are several more in the online album to see, 35 in total.