glass tile

Smooth Ambition
Every once in a while, the stars align and we're given the opportunity to pursue and attain perfection in applying glass tile to a beautifully designed and built swimming pool and spa.  The project illustrated here is one such case:  Everything about it just snapped into place. First, we were asked to join the design team at an early stage, so we had a good level of input on how the pool was to be laid out and its interior surfaces formed; second, the watershapes fit
2016/1.1, January 6 — Cliff-Top Success, Bicarb Start-Ups, All-Glass Excellence and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS January 6, 2016 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
2015/11.2, November 18 — Rooftop Misadventures, Mid-Century Revisions, Artful Fountain and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS November 18, 2015 www.watershapes.com UP ON…
Remaking a Classic
In the course of my career, I've worked with blue-chip clients from rock stars and professional athletes to Hollywood celebrities and business tycoons.  It may be my sparkling personality, but, realistically, I think it has more to do with the way I have with glass tile and custom mosaics associated with beautiful swimming pools. My company, Rock Solid Tile of Calabasas, Calif., has worked all over Los Angeles through the years, taking its
Let’s Do It!
Several years back, the luxury car maker Lexus described its corporate mission as the relentless pursuit of perfection, and I'm willing to step up and say that working with glass tile on the shapely, detailed interior surfaces of swimming pools and spas is just that sort of pursuit. That's not saying we hit the mark with placement of every single piece of tile across surfaces that frequently cover thousands of square feet, but we have
2015/10.1, October 7 — Construction Nightmares, Pond Rehabs, Glorious Tile and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS October 7, 2015 www.watershapes.com LESSONS LEARNED…
2015/8.1, August 5 — Digital Engagement, Pond-Free Cascades, All-Tile Remodeling and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS August 5, 2015 www.watershapes.com DIGITAL DESIGN…
Add a Spa, Save a Home
Not long ago, I received a call from a young electronics entrepreneur who asked me to come and meet with him about the possibility of adding a swimming pool or spa to his multi-million-dollar hilltop property. The home had been built in the early 1960s, he told me, and he'd just completed a major remodeling project.  He also indicated that he knew I was expensive, but that he'd already met with a number of other contractors and wanted to
2013/11.1, November 6 — Shimmering Island Delights, Pond Skimmer ABCs, Deck Engineering and more
November 6, 2013 www.watershapes.com ESSENTIAL Shimmer and Shine Looking for a surface material as unique…
Driving Home
It’s not often that a watershaper tackles a job that takes more than two years of complete, full-time effort, but that’s been the case for the project pictured here.  For nearly two and a half years, in fact, I devoted virtually all of my working life to this single backyard watershape environment, and as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, there were times when I wondered if I was crazy to get involved with a project of this scope. Indeed, to describe it simply as a “backyard watershape environment” is to fall miles short of conveying the complexity of the systems covered in two previous WaterShapes articles (“When Dreams Grow,” April 2008, click here; and “Layering the Experience,” July 2008, click here):  It was a monster project, and there were times I thought the beast had me at a distinct disadvantage. You know all about that, of course, if you’ve followed this sequence of articles, so I won’t belabor the point.  Here, we’ll wrap things up by letting the photographs tell most of the story – although I must say the images don’t quite