It is a sculpture and a fountain which I have been planning for some time. Getting my hands on the constituent parts proved a little harder than I expected but feel my patience has paid off. To plan the construction I built a scale model of the pond and fountain so I could accurately plan the structure (Picture 1).
Picture 1, Scale Model
Picture 2, Drilling Cups (Bottom)
Picture 2, shown above, shows probably the most stressful part of the build, drilling the cups. Slow and steady really does win the race. With the cups drilled, I glued in the flanged pipes ready for assembly onto the tray.
Picture 3, Recreating The Model
Picture 4, Pipe Work (Bottom)
With a lot of balancing and adjusting I recreated my model and brazed the pipes into place (Picture 3). If you're a plumber please don't look too closely at picture 4 which shows the pipe work connecting the teapot and cups to the manifold. Once connected to the manifold (Yes it is a Tupperware container !), I applied sanitary silicone around the lid and shut it tightly. Having to wait for the sealant to dry was frustrating but I had saucers to fit to my tray to occupy my time. The saucers were fitted by brazing copper plates to bicycle spokes and gluing these to the underside of each saucer. By fixing spoke nipples to the tray I could then screw each spoke in position. When the sealant had dried and it was in place I attached the feed hose and crossed my fingers. With very little time tinkering with the water pressure I was really happy with the result. I'm pleasantly surprised with how striking the white ceramic is against the green in the garden and I'm quietly hoping the shallow pools in the cups will attract birds, the not fish-eating variety of course!
Picture 5, 'Calamity'
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