shape

Formal Ease
These days, we do most of our work in the hills in and around Newport Beach, Calif.  To describe the area as "affluent" is understating the case:  For years now, even modest homes for sale in the area usually draw seven-figure prices - and the more modest the home, the likelier it is that it will be torn down and replaced with something larger and more elaborate. Through the past few years, we at Pure Water Pools of Costa Mesa, Calif., have been called to many of these built-out properties by homeowners who
Pond Beginnings
Several months ago, a big idea crossed my mind and wouldn’t go away. For years now, I’ve been making videos about what I do as a pond designer and installer, and several of these recordings have appeared through WaterShapes EXTRA and WaterShapes.com in the past year or so.  What if (I thought to myself), instead of covering things randomly, I switched over to a systematic approach and took the whole
Glass Works
All artists and designers have to come from somewhere, creatively speaking.  In our case, we came to watershaping via the world of glass arts and crafts, a starting place that led us first to create unusual sculptures in glass and light - and then to carry our work out into landscapes and especially into settings that feature water. In collaborating mostly with architects and landscape architects and designers, we at SWON Design in Montreal have found what we believe to be an incredibly rich vein of aesthetic potential.  Indeed, we have come through the years to recognize with greater and greater profundity that water
Designing with Water Plants
I feel like I'm working backward:  First, I told you about a gargantuan water lily and its very specific requirements, then I offered a more general look at water lilies that will thrive in almost any pond.  Now I'm going to give you some ideas and tips for designing with all types of water plants. It might have been more logical to approach things the other way around, but the important thing is that we're ready to complete the package and talk about ways of incorporating lilies and water plants of other sorts into beautiful, overall planting designs. As always, I will avoid getting too specific with recommendations.  Instead, I'll stick to basic