Everything readers need to know to create elegant, soothing water fountains. Easy-to-follow instructions explain choosing and installing pumps and constructing fountains. Few elements are as ubiquitous or as essential as water, or as appealing for the soothing sights and sounds with which it enhances our environment. Fountains are the ideal way to incorporate water's magic into our homes and gardens, and the fountain maker becomes something of an illusionist, striving emulate nature and to conceal the mechanics that make the perpetual flow of water possible. Dorcas Adkins is certainly a magician when it comes to fountain design. Her wizardry encompasses bamboo, wood, ceramic, concrete, stone, and metal creations, from small tabletop delights to full-sized garden waterfalls. Her extremely thorough and well-diagrammed instructions make even the most complex projects approachable--and some of them are indeed fairly complex, involving woodworking skills, plaster and concrete casting, ceramic modeling, soldering, or rigging an existing sculpture. But the results are well worth the effort, yielding Zen-like arrangements in which water trickles over a miniature bonsai garden, through bamboo piping, or into a rustic stone trough filled with water lilies; or more traditional Western constructions such as a ewer-toting cherub, a shell-and-stone-and-tile mosaic, or various spouting faces. Beginners or those seeking smaller-scale productions are best off starting with a more basic approach, like Dawn Cusick's Tabletop Fountains . But for the more adventurous fountaineers, it's hard to beat Adkins's presentation, which also helpfully includes a list of mail-order suppliers and a useful at-a-glance guide to finding general materials, from antique tubs to pond liners to wooden barrels. --Amy Handy “A wonderful reference book on fountains…includes 20 projects ranging from simple dish fountains to large landscape fountains and goes into great detail about pumps, filters, and designs. The photographs alone will inspire you to get building.” – Sacramento Bee “…full of ideas on what to use and how to do it, provides directions for a full range of fountains from simple to complex.” – Elizabeth McDonald in Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Magazine Recipient of the 2000 Benjamin Franklin Award for Crafts/Hobbies/How-To. Nothing smoothes the furrowed brow like the soft lap of wavelets on a lakeshore, the rythym of surf on a barrier island, or the silvery tinkle of a stream falling through the spring forest. At home-in the house or in the garden-the gentle, melodic patter of water spilling from a fountain offers the same tranquility. Dorcas Adkins, a fountain designer and manufacturer, brings this soothing relaxation to your home using readily available materials, simple crafting techniques, and her own step-by-step instructions. She explains everything you need to know about fountain materials, supplies, and assembly, whether you choose to work with wood, stone, ceramic, or other materials and whether or not you have any building experience. Throughout Simple Fountains for Indoors & Outdoors, Adkins's can-do attitude will give you the confidence to experiment and have fun: Relax, she urges, and let your creative talents take over. Bring home the soothing sounds of water The endless murmur and flow of a bubbling fountain adds a touch of elegance to both homes and gardens. Now, fountain designer and manufacturer Dorcas Adkins reveals her trade secrets for making 20 creative fountains-from a small, tabletop fountain put together without a single tool to a dramatic outdoor spouting wall fountain or a full-sized waterfall-and at far less cost than for those found in upscale catalogs. Step by step, Simple Fountains for Indoors & Outdoors explains everything you need to know. Projects include: --Tabletop fountains made from shells and stones --Lava rock bonsai garden fountain --Cedar water garden with bamboo flute --Birdshower fountain --Small mosaic fountain --Concrete and ceramic spouting wall fountains --Shishi Odoshi(or Japanese Deer-Scare Fountain) Dorcas Adkins lives in Washington, D.C., with Pat Munoz and their two cats, Harrie and Sushi. They share a large garden boasting a pond and five fountains with innumerable tadpoles, dragonflies, and hummingbirds. With her partner, Steve Meyer, Dorcas can usually be found running Adams & Adkins, Inc. of Alexandria, Virginia, making fountains and other garden ornaments for sale to catalogs, retail stores, and individuals. Introduction Of all nature's elements, water is perhaps the most essential to life, health, and happiness. For many species of plants and animals, falling water provides increased oxygen. This all-important ingredient combines with carbon, enabling waste from these organisms to decompose quickly. For aquatic animals such as fish, snails, and crayfish, adequate dissolved oxygen in the water is required for life itself. Since the earliest times, we huma