My neighbor acquired thousands of stone scraps from a counter company that was going out of business.  Unpolished and unfinished, this unique soapstone caught my eye.  Every time it rained its chalky white surface lit up in a dark ebony with orange and tan veins.  I traded a bottle of wine for it.  

The straps and banding are hammered copper from reclaimed pipe. Twisted strands of copper laid across the leading edge of the stone tune the fountain's sound and splash.  The stone suspends freely and sways gently in the breeze.  A wooden insert in the base adds a different element of texture and hides the pump.

First attempts at a traditional Japanese-style bamboo water feature...only using copper instead of bamboo.   

At some point, collecting or buying rock for a fountain loses its glitter. Rather than filling a container with copious rocks, I used untreated wood to make a false floor, and only a handful of rocks to accentuate and tune the fountain head.  The wood adds an interesting texture to the mix, but also offers a solid backdrop that acts like a reflecting pool when the fountain is not running.  

This was my first fountain in my first home.  It is made from a terra cotta chiminea lined with spray-on undercoating.  It held up for five years on a Florida balcony without any structural issues, and never leaked.   I left it with an adoring neighbor when I moved to Maine.  

Copper tubing was wrapped around an old piece of coral found along the road in Florida.  Multiple tubes were soldered to create the illusion of a snake wrapping around the coral, but allowed for water to flow from both ends of the tubing.  

The entire piece was balanced on end and secured to a false wooden floor in the ceramic container.  Moving the piece became incredibly difficult, and the coral eventually cracked when it froze one winter.  There were good lessons learned from the failure to dry out the stone, and even better ones learned for bending and soldering copper tubing.