I had the good fortune to be at The Grove Hotel recently for a friend’s birthday celebrations. Anyone knowing this swanky modern hotel will know that it’s been designed with a large selection of modern art and sculpture as part of its decor – I’ve put a few shots of interesting pieces up on my Flikr site here >>).
In the garden of the hotel was something that particularly caught my eye – this fantastic copper bowl which sits at the head of a water run:
Copper Bowl
Copper Bowl in context
Something about this piece really reminded me (although it’s much grander in scale of course!) of a copper bird bath that I created for my garden some time ago. Made from the inverted top of an old copper water cylinder, I plugged several holes that existed in the top (for the valve, the inlet pipes etc), filled the bottom couple of inches of the bowl with concrete, and added a vertical piece of 22mm copper pipe topped off with the bent figure made from the heating elements. I then added a layer of pea shingle to cover the concrete, and a few sea shells etc for interest.
Clearly there is no water in this picture, but when full it fills just to the top of the 22mm copper pipe that juts up from the centre. When it rain and the water level rises, excess water simply flows into this pipe and out onto the ground.
The whole thing sits on a section of aluminium pipe, just to lift it a little way off the ground.
My copper bird bath
Your bird bath is a beauty!
I’ve heard that copper can be toxic to birds – I just bought an old copper barbeque pan and cleaned it with vinegar, salt and flour. Its beat up – but that sort of adds to its charm – I would like to use it as a bird bath but I’m worried about toxicity – do you have any information on this? Wendy
Dear Wendy. Hi there! Thanks so much for your kind comment! That’s a really interesting point, and I’m ashamed to say I’ve no immediate answer? I’ll try to do some research on the web and see what I can find out – it’s certainly a potential stumbling block I wish I’d thought of!! The water in there gets replaced quite quickly saying that, so it may be that levels of toxins don’t get a chance to build up that much? I’ve certainly seen birds drinking from all sorts of disgusting ‘natural’ sources – maybe they have a higher resistance to chemicals? Hmmm… will see what I can find out! Many thanks again – I’ll be in touch if I find out anything !? Kind regards, Clive