imagination Archives - Water Shapes

2017/9.1, September 6 — Tri-Level Precision, Choosing Koi, Defect Avoidance and more

THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS September 6, 2017 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…

Bringing Visions to Life

I remember several years ago, back before it was really fashionable to build completely naturalistic pools, that I decided this was exactly what I wanted to do. This was in the very early 80s, when you'd see maybe some rocks on the bond beam or a waterfall on the end of the pool - but that was about as natural as it got back then. My new idea was to create environments that were completely natural, stem to stern. I tried presenting the concept to a number of potential clients, explaining how we could do things like angle the top of the pool and install rocks all around the edge and create natural

Wanted: Water Artists

The way I see it, we watershapers can look at ourselves in one of two ways: as diggers of holes in the ground that hold water, or as artists working with one of the most exciting mediums on the planet. For a lot of reasons, I like the second of those options, because the first is passive - the sole goal being to contain the water - while the second gets me more deeply involved with a truly amazing and malleable material. Once we look at water the way a painter sees pigment or a sculptor views stone, we see a potential for dramatic contrasts: Water has a soothing effect, for example, yet it can be tremendously

A Path Discovered

Last year at about this time, my wife and I were driving through Big Sur on the California coast when, on impulse, we decided to stop at