Soooooo, I was looking around for an indoor fountain for my new place and I didn’t find anything really that interesting. A bunch of zen rocks and slate crap or a bunch of cutsie, bunny rabbit ceramic crap. As I’m duscussing my findings with the boy he suggests I make my own. I think this is a great idea, seeing as how I won’t be able to finance my stained glass art for a few months yet.
The only problem is that I don’t know anything about fountains. I just bought a pump, although it’s probably the wrong one. And I just put in a bid on an enamel basin, which I figure I can use as the base. I figure I can work on it from there. Check out salvation army this weekend for scraps and things I can put in it.
So, anyone have any experience in water work/art? I basically just want the water to trickle down a pile of stuff. Any ideas on adhesive or pump? Anything?
I was sort of watching late night tv a few nights ago, and the wanna-be Martha Stewart perky filler girl did a segment on just this topic. She said all you needed was an aqaurium water pupme, bought at a pet store and just basically make your own fountain. If you want a trickle down effect from a height farther than the pump pushes up the water, I would find a small hose that fits just over the top if the pump (My $50 fountain had one of those, to push the water to the top if the very phallic stone object the water trickled down). The original pump, which my evil tasmanian devil dog has since detroyed after we disassembled the fountain because my 3 year old considered it her persoanl drinking fountain, also had suction cups on it’s base to hold it in place. Hope I was of some help here. Let us know how it works for you.
Thanks Tequ! I found an online site about the pump I bought, and it might be the right one yet. Suction cups are a good idea that I hadn’t even considered. I was thinking of putting a mosaic tile pattern on the bottom of the basin. I’ll have to see what I can find at the art store.
I built one. I used a water pump, as you described, and put a 6" piece of clear tubing (brand name Tygon) on the nozzle. Be sure you get as straight a piece of tubing as possible – it comes in rolls, and tends to memorize that curve forever.
I used beach glass and a clear glue that is cured by ultraviolet light to build a ‘splash’ around the tubing. I slipped necks of bottles over the tubing to anchor it. This was years worth of beach glass collecting, mind you. The ‘splash’ extends out about 1" - 3", depending on the glass pieces I then glued to the necks. It’s all free-form, and not awfully impressive without the water.
BTW, I just used sunlight to cure the glue. I applied the glue inside in the den, then held the pieces in place one at a time and took them out onto the patio in the strong sun. Took just a few minutes to cure. You can get the glue at hardware and craft stores.
Then I put the whole thing in a bowl and covered it with agates (also from the beach). I cheated a bit and first covered the pump with some 1/4" screen, then piled on the agates.
Then I added water and plugged it in. Works great. Some pumps are adjustable – so you can experiment with different splashes.
winken the wonderful loves fountains. all you need is a pump, bowl, & rocks, or something for the water to play with. i use distilled water in mine to keep “build up” down. mine uses about a quart of water a week. (wtw loves to drink out of the fountain. i usually clean the filter in the pump, the bowl, and rocks once a week so fountain water is drinkable for winken.