A Large Outdoor Stone Garden Fountain Attracts Attention

 

In previous articles we have looked at having fountains in garden ponds and rock gardens and in the last article we introduced the idea of the rock fountain in which I summarized that natural stone was the best material to use. The following article takes a look at stone once again but this time I will be looking at the large outdoor stone garden fountain and some of the options not covered previously.

Large Outdoor Stone Garden Fountain Installations

Until recently it was only in front of civic or corporate buildings that you would see large stone fountains. During the 1960's it became popular to have fountains which consisted of huge blocks of polished stone usually surrounded by a bed of large smooth stones or pebbles. Such huge examples of this type of garden fountain are simply far too large and imposing for domestic use. In recent years there has been an upsurge in demand for larger pieces of stone of various types as such fountain designs, scaled down and modified slightly, work great in modern garden designs.

You may wonder why such a large boulder should appear pleasing, after all it is only rock. However, once polished, all stone displays unique aspects which would otherwise remain invisible. Marble has always been a material of choice in the construction industry and many of us would dearly love to have granite work surfaces in out kitchens and the main reason for this is the fact that each stone, when polished, is unique and incredibly beautiful. Consider this for a moment and you will begin to realize how beautiful and how diverse a large outdoor stone garden fountain can be. The colors of granite alone range from deep black to black speckled with whites and grays right through to speckles of greens, blues and reds. Granite is also available in various shades of red, greens and blues which makes it an ideal material for such fountains.

While stone such as speckled, or unusually colored, granite can prove very expensive keep in mind that you can create the illusion of a much larger block by using slabs rather than a solid block. Taking this concept further and you will quickly begin to understand that, by using slabs, you can create all manner of wonderful shapes and structures for your fountain. Obviously most large outdoor stone garden fountain designs will be able to be built to a scale suitable for any given situation ranging from large open spaces right down to small urban backyards where space is at a premium.

Of course natural stone is used extensively in fountain designs and most of the finest you will have seen will have been carved from stone. We shall examine these types of fountain in later articles and you will find a few towards the bottom of the list below. For garden fountains it is more common to see statue type fountains made from reconstituted stone and, when time permits, I shall add an article explaining the differences as well as some of the advantages and disadvantages of using this material.

 

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