How To: Memorial to Missing Fountains

How To: Memorial to Missing Fountains
Step 1: Gather your Materials
You will need:
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100 ft. long roll of ½” blue PVC pipe
1 ft. long pieces of ½” white PVC pipe
½” PVC 3-way elbow joints
½” PVC male pipe adapters
cinder blocks
clear 12”x24” acrylic boards (number may vary depending on how many days you need)
red 12”x12” acrylic board
rolls of 100 yd. long plastic lacing
5 ft. long cardboard tubing
metal bar
base of iPhone car mount
jingle bells
tape
Step 2: Cut all your materials to appropriate sizes and shapes
You will need to cut your blue PVC pipe according to the diameter of your fountain. All the following
cuts and measurements will be for a 20 ft. wide fountain.
Cut the blue PVC pipe into 9 pieces - 6 15 ft. long pieces, and 3 3⅓ ft. short pieces. The 6 longer pieces
will span from the middle of the fountain to the edge of the fountain, while the 3 shorter pieces will
hang loosely from the middle.
Cut each of your 1 ft. long white PVC pipes in half. These will serve as legs of your bases.
Laser cut your acrylic boards to create the appropriate number of raindrops. If you are representing a
whole year, you will need to cut 365 drops. The filled drops represent days with rain and the crossed
through drop represents a day without rain.
We used two websites to determine the number of days with rain: http://www.usclimatedata.com and
http://wunderground.com.
Step 3: Paint the materials blue
We want this installation to look like water in a fountain, so we will need all the visible materials to look
blue. Spray paint the wooden tubing and filled in rain drops blue. The crossed out raindrops
representing non-rain days will remain clear to emphasize the number of rain days to non-rain days. Add
jingle bells to the bottom of each blue, filled in raindrop.
Step 4: Install your bases and supports
Piece together your 7 bases. These are comprised of your 6 in. white PVC pipes, male adapters, and 3way elbow joints. It’s optional whether you want to spray paint these blue or not, depending on how
visible they will be.
Place 6 of these bases evenly around the edge of your fountain.
At the middle of your fountain place the last base. Take your metal bar and slide it into your wooden
tubing. This will make the tubing sturdier. Then attach your metal bar, wooden tubing combo onto the
base. Use an iPhone car mount as extra support. Secure well with tape.
Step 5: Assemble the new fountain
Take your longer 15 ft. long pieces of blue PVC pipe and stick them down the top of the wooden tubing
in the middle of the fountain. Extend each pipe towards a base and attach to the PVC male adapter. The
installation should look slightly like a bundt cake at this point. Take the remaining 3 shorter pieces and
add them to the wooden tubing. Allow them to hang loosely. This creates a water spraying effect.
String together your raindrops in chains of 1, 2 and 3. This allows for the length of the chains to adapter
with the height of your PVC pipes as they extend out from the middle. Tie your raindrop chains to all 9
pieces of PVC pipe and allow them to hang. The plastic lacing should have enough grip to keep your
chains from sliding.
When you are done, the chains of raindrops should look like water is falling.
Step 6: Explain to the world what you’re doing
Laser cut your red piece of acrylic with an explanation of the installation means and leave it on the edge
of your fountain.
Stand back, and enjoy the piece of art your just created.