I am getting the forms ready for three fountains.

Next my process is to add cement to the armatures and set the rocks, shells and glass when the cement is just right. Too wet, the rocks fall over, too dry they won't hold.I have to think about how the water will flow from the top where it comes out of the tube as it cascades down the wall. I have to do this in my mind because I cannot test a hose down the font of wet cement. So you hope for the best. When it drys you set it up and run a hose where the water will pump out to see what happens. Here you will have to make adjustments. Put an edge here and there to make it flow in many directions rather than one stream. Slow down flows that burst out of the capture bowl. It is all experimental and you have to make the corrections as you go along. This is a maddening process for those who want exact steps of how to create something but that indeed is how you get waterfalls like this to work right. In fact I saw a beautiful waterfall in the spa at the Claremont hotel, that while a work of water art, it spattered everywhere in the hall and gave them a lot of trouble.

The forms just seem to emerge naturally.

Here I am forming the chicken wire for the bottom of one of my fountains. Two pieces keeps it lighter to move, but harder to balance the back. I have to figure out a way to lock the two pieces together.








Lay down rebar under the bag, cut the top of the bag and lift it with rebar to divide it neatly in half.This trick was taught to me by a local cement man.










I picked the oyster shells off my friends plate when I noticed how their curvy ruffles would be perfect fingers to direct the waters flow.








I did not have this fountain sitting in a stable position, so it gave way and fell over. I had to do major surgery on it before the cement hardened. We will see how it turns out. Most pieces this large and heavy are going to be a pain if they are being made to be ported somewhere else. It is easy however to build these pieces in place. You simply prepare a foundation and everything attaches.



This piece is just the right size to be easier to handle. It will probably be my most successful portable fountain.