A dear friend recently celebrated a significant birthday which called for a gift up a notch or two from the usual cheesy trinkets I toss her way. She had often admired the home-made water fountain on my balcony; so I settled on the idea of making one for her.

She can’t manage storage for a large heavy pot like the one that forms the base of mine. Hence, I decided to look for smaller pots that would fit together and then disassemble for winter storage.

I gathered up parts from many places. The pump, two of the dish containers, flower pot and bamboo came from Golden Acre. I found the heavier vase-shaped pottery piece at the Crossroads market and a sack of polished black stones at Canadian Tire.

I cut the bamboo into suitable lengths with a handsaw and mitre box and lashed them together with garden twine that I had on hand. The piece of bamboo with the largest diameter became the spout which fit snuggly onto the plastic tubing (left over from building my own fountain).

You can find step-by-step instructions for fountain making in my earlier blog. From the picture, you can see that some of the parts function simply to make the fountain taller. The upper part, which is the heart of the fountain, could sit on a table top.

The Sunset book pictured above - our newest on the topic - includes a lovely container fountain on page 118 with a bamboo spout and a miniature umbrella water plant.

Recently, my friend told me that she has been rearranging the parts to give it more splashes, setting stones on the bamboo to prop up the spout. I like that. The best part about home-made fountains is you get to play with them.

- Jane

Fountains create focal spots for balcony, garden or deck. The symphony of sound is relaxing and softens the edges of neighbourhood noise.

When searching the catalogue for information on building a smaller fountain in a pot, subject keywords “tabletop fountains” are most helpful. Here are the books that caught my eye.

Tabletop fountains: 40 Easy and Great-Looking Projects to Make (1999) by Dawn Cusick offers clear information about the mechanics of the fountain along with design tips and examples.

She builds a patio fountain from plain clay flower pots (p. 64). Three pots and saucers of different sizes are arranged inside a very large saucer so that water cascades from the largest to the smallest. The arrangement is capped by a spider plant and saucers are lined with polished stones. Very effective.

I also liked the face mask fountain (p.76) and stacked squares fountain (p.89).

In Tranquility Fountains: Projects for a Serene Lifestyle(2002), the Global Meditation Table (p. 52) is an arrangement of two stone-filled trays with water spurting through the holes of a salt shaker located in the middle of the smallest tray.

Copper & Wind chimes fountain (p. 84) uses copper tubing to channel the water in a serpentine design with wind chimes made from the same tubing to stir in the breeze. Another clever arrangement is the Waterfall fountain (p36) built with slabs of slate.

In Creative Tabletop Fountains(2002) by Marthe Le Van, projects include a Peaceful Pagoda (p. 45) made from ceramic bonsai containers and the Seashore Memory Fountain (p.69) where the water is channeled through a large sea shell.

Simple fountains for indoors & outdoors(1999) offers instructions for working with bamboo and wood to create spouts and dippers. One of the loveliest fountains is featured on the cover: a pottery jar that spills water into an antiqued copper basin filled with polished rocks.

I also found inspiration on the web.

Don Vandervort’s Hometips shows a classic Japanese design with bamboo and water plant. Garden Gate magazine offers a clever arrangement for a small patch of garden.

Sunset features a very pretty fountain made from a tall ceramic garden pot. This one would work for either garden or balcony.

Among my favourite sounds of summer are the gurgle and splash of water. I love fountains and discovered a few years ago how easy it is to make your own. I would say "as easy as child’s play", except we are talking water and electricity, folks; it’s not a good project for the young ones. Think of it as the adult equivalent of wading pool and bucket and enjoy puddling (safely) around.

The goal is to take a pot of water and pump a bit of it through a plastic tube so that it falls and tumbles back into the pot in an eye and ear-pleasing way. You could create a fountain for the cost of the pump and tubing, using garden and kitchen equipment on hand.

Equipment Basics

• Water pump. For a small fountain, a small pump (costing $15.00 or less) will do.
• Plastic tubing to fit the size of the pump outlet. You can find this in the plumbing section of stores like Rona and Home Depot. It will cost about $5.00. Take careful measurements and remember that it is the outside dimension of the outlet that fits the inside dimension of the tubing. Better yet, take the pump with you when you shop and ask for help from the staff.
• Clamp to secure the tubing to the pump (less than 50 cents).
• Waterproof pot or container.
• Decorative object/spout to channel the water.
• Stones, pots or dishes to bounce the water around.

My water fountain is made from a Chinese egg pot which I bought from a grocery store. (I love the dragon.) The cast-iron fish came from Canadian Tire (or maybe Zellers) and was designed to hold a tea light. The slatted wood ledge where the fish sits came with the pot. Originally, it covered the whole top and was used to stack the pots one on top of another. I cut it in half with a hand saw.

Inside the pot, a saucer sits on top of a liter-sized plastic yogurt container filled with water (could be stones) to keep it from floating. A cream jug, turned on its side, rests on the saucer. Plastic tubing from the pump is fed up through the slatted wood ledge, through the back of the fish and out the mouth. The water pumped through it falls into the cream jug, bounces onto the saucer and splashes back into the water in the bottom of the pot. The slatted ledge conveniently organizes the electrical cord from the pump as well as the tubing.

The fun with making a fountain comes in arranging the bits and pieces to bounce the water around. You can use rocks and plants to hide the working parts of the pump. The flash of the camera has revealed the tubing at the back of my fountain and you can see how it works. Without the camera’s power assist, the working parts are not that obvious. Kind of like red eye.

FRIDAY: More on fountains - books and blogs.