Optical Illusion

The only thing missing in our perennial garden was a fountain to serve as a focal point. But after seeing the hefty price tags, I decided it was out of my budget.

Then, last winter when I helped my church build our Christmas concert stage, I noticed the tree pedestals made of lightweight plastic foam! That gave me an idea.

I bought lightweight insulation sheets from a hardware store. Then I cut them into squares, stacked them and glued them together to form a block. Next, I carved a fountain pedestal shape out of the block with a rasp and used a Dremel rotary tool to carve shapes into the base and top.

To make sure it would work as a fountain, I put a PVC pipe through the center to run the cords through. To keep it from leaking, I filled it with waterproof caulking and painted the entire thing with Drylok waterproofing formula. The finished project weighs only 30 pounds and looks great!

—Mark Ternosky, Akron, Ohio