Hi, I'm Raven, the designer behind Raven Sand Art, also the founder of the brand.
Before this, I spent eight years working as a commercial illustrator, and a couple of those years teaching art in New Zealand. Drawing has always been the one constant in my life. Selling sand art kits was never part of the plan.
It started small. I was sharing my illustration work online, and somewhere along the way, people started asking if they could actually make one of my designs themselves. Enough people asked that I figured, why not? If I could turn my artwork into something people could sit down and create with their own hands, that felt worth trying.
So I did what I know how to do, which is draw. But turning a drawing into an actual sand art kit is a completely different problem. Most sand art kits on the market are made for kids, simple shapes, bright basic colors, done in five minutes. I wanted something different: intricate designs with real detail, the kind of piece you'd actually want to hang up when you're done, not tuck in a drawer. Nobody was really selling that. Turns out there's a reason it's hard.
I figured it out anyway. Piece by piece, mostly through trial, error, and a stubborn refusal to give up. What came out of it wasn't perfect, but it was mine, and as far as I know, it was the first of its kind.
Then came the part nobody warns you about: actually running a store. Illustration and e-commerce turned out to be two completely different worlds, and I underestimated how much one person could take on. In any given month I'm designing new pieces, which alone can take over ten hours each between the artwork and production. I'm sourcing materials, portioning sand by hand, printing and cutting baseboards, hand-mounting each one, listing products, answering messages, handling orders, and figuring out problems I've never had to think about before, like protecting my own designs from being copied. Some days run long. Some days I get things wrong and have to fix them. I'm still learning this side of the business, one order at a time.
I'm telling you all this because I think it matters.
Every piece you get from Raven Sand Art didn't come from a factory template. It came from someone who draws for a living, figuring out how to put that into your hands.
Why Sand Art
I still remember the first time I poured sand onto a baseboard and watched it settle into place. It's fine, almost weightless, and it moves in a way that's hard to predict, so you end up paying attention to it in a way you don't with most things.
That's honestly the part I didn't expect. You sit down, start pouring one section at a time, and somewhere in there your mind just quiets down. I'm not someone who meditates or does anything like that, but making these does something similar for me. No phone, no rush, just filling in one small area, then the next, until the picture is there.
And then it's done, you've got the actual piece in front of you, sand and all, something you made with your hands that's still there the next day.
A Note From Me
Every design starts on my drawing tablet before it becomes anything you can hold. I care a lot about getting that translation right, from sketch to sand, so if something ever arrives less than perfect, I want to know. And if you finish a piece and love how it turned out, I'd genuinely love to see it too.
Reach us anytime at support@ravensandart.com.