Moorish Fountain

We're working on a very exciting commission right now: creating the tiles and helping with the design for a beautiful star-shaped Moorish fountain destined for a California courtyard. Back in 2004 when I designed our Alhambra Series, I visualized them in a gorgeous, traditional Moorish fountain. The tiles have graced many kitchens, some bathrooms and gardens, but never a fountain -- until now! I can hardly wait to see the photos of the final installation, which will be in the capable hands of San Jose landscape designer Molly Urban. In the meantime, we are hard at work in the studio, creating hundreds of turquoise border tiles, cobalt blue hex tiles, and a few big custom medallions -- have a peek below at the work in progress (clockwise from top left: workstation for carving the custom medallions, two welcome visitors to the studio, hand pressing border tiles, border tiles ready for the drying racks, Islamic Star pattern in turquoise and black, finished medallion prototype ready for mold pouring.)


Traditionally, the fountain forms the centrepiece of the Islamic garden. For a desert people, the element of water is rare and life-sustaining, precious, magical and sacred. The ornamental garden with fountains evolved naturally from the orchard with its cruciform irrigation channels, with the shapes of the cross and super-imposed squares taking on a sacred geometry. Penelope Hobhouse describes the contemplative nature of the Islamic garden in her beautiful book "Plants in Garden History:

"The chabutra, a stone or marble platform, was often placed above the meeting place of the four main channels (of water), and was a resting place for contemplation, an integral part of garden appreciation. An owner might sit for hours or days, lulled by the musical sounds of the water, the presence of the dark-eyed houris, and the scents and colours of ephemeral seasonal flowers... To the nomad's dream of cool shade, running water, fruit and scent inside protective walls was added a new symbolism that enhanced the garden as a private place for contemplation where man could try to find an equilibrium between himself and God...."

The meeting place of the four water channels represents the crossroads of the world, the still centre and eternal source: "For the Arabs the number four assumed a cosmic importance based on traditions inherited from Babylonian, Pythagorean, and Hindu sources. The interaction of the cube, representing the multiplicity of nature's manifestations, with the heaven-inspired dynamic circle, dictated how sacred Muslim architecture developed. The four-fold garden can be considered as an open-air version of this theme - not only a place of refuge and beauty, but also an expression of spiritual understanding of the universe."

The fountain which our tiles will grace is designed in the traditional star pattern, with two super-imposed squares creating the balanced and magical shape. We've incorporated the circle motif in the form of eight medallions which will be placed on each of the eight points of the star. As the centrepiece of a courtyard with lush tropical plantings, we hope the fountain will serve the traditional role of a place of beauty and contemplation!