Story Card Text:
Sand Candles

I remember one magical summer when inspiration came from buckets full of beach sand, lumps of white wax melted to crystalline clarity on the kitchen stove, then transformed into jewel toned illuminators with bits of broken crayons. My friend Debbie and I would fly, on shiny new ten speed bikes, to the beach to fill our buckets. Then, back in her garage, adolescent artists' hands sculpted smooth round shapes into which we'd pour the molten wax, watching anxiously as it sizzled its way through the tiny grains, and waiting, patiently, as it cooled around a, carefully positioned, string of wick suspended from an old piece of dowel. The best part came, after the cooling, when a waxy, sand encrusted sculpture was unearthed. Some summertime memories fade like watercolors washed in the salt spray but others remain as brilliant as the crayon-colored paraffin, forever illuminated by the flicker of sand candle flames.