Posts Tagged ‘MugPhlute’

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New Ocarinas and a MugPhlute


2010
11.21

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Posted in Ceramic Musical Instruments, Glazing and Firing | Comments Off on New Ocarinas and a MugPhlute

Ocarinas & MugPhluteThe last batch of glaze tests included a few pinch pot ocarinas and a MugPhlute.  The natural look of the reduction fired stoneware with minimal glaze accents seems to work well. The pieces in this image are all high-fired stoneware with red iron oxide  brushed into the textured and stamped features.  The glaze is St. John’s Black, applied with a brush.  The Bailey gas kiln, loaded with these clay instruments as well as student projects from this semester, was fired to cone 10.

This semester’s wheel-throwing course pulled me away from making the usual quantity of ceramic musical instruments, but it has also opened new avenues to explore.  Having a respectable palette of stamping, texturing, and glazing combinations will make future project planning easier and, hopefully, more predictable.

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MugPhlute Heresy


2010
10.06

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Posted in Glazing and Firing, Humor | Comments Off on MugPhlute Heresy

It has been almost a month since I constructed a playable ceramic instrument but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been thinking (and sketching) about it.  For over a year, every instrument that I constructed was purely pinch-pot-handmade…and now I am discovering new possibilities with pieces and parts that are wheel thrown.  Case in point: Trumpet Mugsthe two mugs pictured include horn-like appendages but they do not  play, but the whimsy of MugPhlutes is still there, lurking just beneath the surface.  These are more like steins than mugs, but they open the door for a musical instrument genre of semi-utilitarian sculptural pieces.  These two were designed to rest either vertically (for function) but to appear more sculptural when setting horizontally.

To avoid breaking a record for consecutive months of instrument building, there shall be an ocarina forthcoming soon, even if it is very small…we can’t commit MugPhlute heresy, now can we?

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Four Hole Ocarina Magic


2010
07.16

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Posted in Ceramic Musical Instruments, Construction Techniques, Multimedia | Comments Off on Four Hole Ocarina Magic

I am not sure why I decided to do this. It may be simply the challenge to make an ocarina that plays a full octave with only four finger holes. Perhaps it is the frustration of carving out 8 to 12 holes and constantly fighting the airway in order to achieve a reasonable tone. Regardless, John Taylor’s English system for a 4 hole ocarina is the challenge I made for myself while taking some time off from the craziness of the office:

It will be a while before I am confident that I can play using this system. The permutations and combinations of fingering is quite an adjustment from what I learned as a second grader playing a song flute in one of dad’s music classes. There are a few tricks and tips that I need to pry from some of my ocarina building friends, but I am thrilled to better understand the magic of how 4 finger holes in a simple clay instrument can produce a full octave scale.