One of the most important states of being in creating a peaceful, harmonious life is practicing 'detachment'. True detachment. It doesn't mean being a hermit and cutting yourself off from everyone...it means not letting people, objects, feelings become so 'attached' to you, mentally, that they meld with your sense of identity...that any idea of 'losing' that 'attachment' will somehow 'take away' from who you are...

Easier said than done, I know. Masters know the simple beauty and truth in it because they practice it. I think we've all heard/read the 'love' verse that says if you love something set it free...that's the idea, anyway. And so I come to those questions from time to time with certain flutes. I am often asked, "Have you ever sold any flutes you wish you'd kept?" The honest answer is 'yes', but knowing it's a necessary 'step' since the beauty and medicine of this sacred instrument needs to be shared and spread around, not hoarded. OK, and bills need to be paid, who's kidding whom!

I had been corresponding with a prospective 'parent' over particular flutes and keys, getting a feel for what they were looking for...and as is oft the case, it gets into matters of Spirit and the Heart. There's a lot of 'gut feeling' involved, messages from beyond...a lot gets 'spoken' without ever being written. It's a neat thing, really...quite vibrant. I say 'parent' as I view my flutes as my 'kids', so I refer to them as being adopted, not sold. They're much more than pieces of wood that play sweet music.

When I had completed the (low E-flat) Praying Eagle flute below, I knew it was a keeper. Oh, it was offered to a select few people that ultimately passed on it...it is one of the most amazing playing flutes, too, with an upper register that can be cleanly played with the lightest of breaths...for experienced flute players with superior breath control, this instrument will play just about anything any way. How could I offer it for adoption now?

Well, I did. It's Iowa-bound as I type, along with a couple of other siblings. Deep down I know there will be other really great flutes that will be created, and I'll cross that dilemma-bridge all over again. Actually, I already am with my first two Verdi-tuned flutes, the low E and branch flute from an earlier blog post. I am not releasing those at this time, and may not...they will let me know if and when there is such a time to move on. The Praying Eagle did.

(click on pics to enlarge)



I'm applying for membership in the prestigious Southern Highlands Craft Guild, and should I make it to Stage 2 I will need to deliver 2 flutes for their close scrutiny...the Eagle was to be one of them, so I had to tell myself to get my rear in gear and crank out a couple of real beauties should I need them for a summer drop-off. I could recreate the eagle, but the natural piece of Ironwood it's sitting on is most unique and helps 'make' the look complete...I'd have to search really hard to find something that would work as well.

One of the other siblings traveling with it is a flute that I've had since last spring or summer. It's a true North Carolina flute made from figured Cherry from Asheville and a block and end cap of Ambrosia Maple from Rowan County north of Charlotte. It was a nice playing low E...pretty to look at, pretty sounding, but no one went for it. Because this new 'parent' was looking originally for low D/E flutes, I pulled those flutes and put them through their paces. I thought the others were flat, but what it was was that this next flute was actually a tad sharp.

Long story short, I had an "aHA!" moment and shifted the flute into a Verdi-tuned F a few weeks ago. It's yet another story of something 'magical' that defies quantifiable description as that flute exploded in personality and playability with it's new 'voice'. It's bouncy and bright and delightfully responsive. All I can do is smile since I can't explain it.





The Ambrosia Maple was gifted to me by a fellow flute-maker Mark...it was this hefty rectangular chunk that I decided to cross-cut into pieces for blocks and caps, and it came out with these wonderfully wild designs. Part of the joy of woodworking!

The third of the Three Amigos is one of my specialty flutes, a high F# with an extended slow-air chamber. The body is Black Limba (Africa), a wood known as a great 'tonal' wood and used in many acoustic instruments for its resonance properties. The flat-bottomed design ("Half-Pipe") allows for a lot more variation in finger hole diameter and placement than a round-bore high F#. A beginner player would have a bit longer adjustment period to get used to the odd finger hole pattern, but even with my big paws I can toodle along quickly with it, as tight as they are.


In the above pic, the mouthpiece would be to the left and the 'foot' end to the right. This is for those who play left-over-right, which is the vast majority of players...in flute-making, a hole is placed 'x' distance from the sound hole, or at least the dot for the hole. If you were to draw a line perpendicular to the barrel at a particular dot, that represents the line on which the hole can be dropped and still play the same note. I have developed the above pattern after a lot of trial and error and playing time, and it's a pretty ergonometric design, very comfortable and natural. If I were to put all the holes in one line, they would be way too close together to play...fingers wouldn't fit tightly enough to prevent air leaks at the holes.

Now to the drawing board for today. Lots of ideas on paper that I need to translate into wood, once I decide on the particulars. The weather continues to be user-friendly, for which I am thankful!

"By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea..."

Ah, my good ol' barbershop days...hearing in my head the Cincinatti Kids quartet singing the 'title' song on a CD of theirs...

Well, my mid-F# "Sea Flute" (made of spalted, quartersawn Sycamore) is finished. I blogged about it recently on how the key shift left me with a predicament, where I had to cut a perfectly good flute and make some critical adjustments for a customer. In that blog I had not talked about the block or shown it (because it wasn't completed!)...a neat creation on how it came about.

I'm glad I opted for the turquoise bird inlay at the flute 'foot'...from the older post you may remember the bottom was too thin for a band inlay all the way around due to oversanding of the tuning hole I had to remove. I'm pleased with it's look and balance.

For the block, a seagull of sorts was requested. At first I was thinking a simple shape that maybe was painted in the motif of a gull...and, typical of how I approach a lot of what I do with my art, I started going to town. I used a general but more 'involved' design I'd used on that stunning piece of Cocobolo with the head-down Eagle (prior post), and I figured I'd paint it like a gull.

The only problem was that as I went to research pictures of gulls, there are myriad pattern and coloration variations...so I picked one and began painting. I hated it. OK, hate is a little strong, but I knew that wasn't going to satisfy my 'vision', and so I took the wood burning pen and roughly put in feathers and such. I tried to realistically paint it again. Nope. Wasn't working either...in fact, the burning lines made painting much harder on that small surface...and then it hit me.

I'd done it before on other pieces of art and flutes...you paint something and then 'distress' it by taking fine sandpaper and lightly going over the piece, letting some bare wood show through and ending up with a piece that looks folk-artish and weathered...and what is more weathered than things exposed to the salty sea air? Once I did that, I really really liked the look of it. While the flute has a gloss finish, I opted for a satin finish for the gull, as it 'fit in' better. Too, where the lace is wrapped, I left the wood wavy to mimic beach sand (though little is visible with the lace in place)...

(click on pics to enlarge)

Now I wait to simply hear back, since any custom order client has the opportunity to say yay or nay. By the way, did you hear about the love affair at sea? A classic case of 'buoy' meeting 'gull'...

I collected/reclaimed some cedar and dogwood logs from a forested area that was ripped down a couple of years ago. I held on to this particular stick of cedar thinking one day I'd split it and make a 'branch flute'. There are some flute makers who do this exclusively, and it's a neat concept. Certainly some of the earliest aboriginal flutes were made this way...split, hollowed out, and the lashed back together using sinew and natural adhesives. Ah, if it were only that easy!

Anyway, I had a hankering to split it and try my hand at it...next time I'll take pictures of all the steps, but in this case I just flew into it rather quickly. I used a Dremel tool and cutter heads to work at hollowing out the heartwood (thankfully, cedar is quite soft and easy to work)...get's tricky because you don't want to cut too close to the outside.

Long story short, I hollowed it to my satisfaction and glued it up overnight. Making the 'nest' area for the block and sound hole mechanisms creates some obstacles to overcome. I have various tools that will make it easier in the future, but I chose a flattish area and filed it to a usable size. Given the length and the bore I cut, I knew I had to drop a tuning hole somewhere down the flute, so I found a small knot area that seemed to be about the right proportion that I needed, location-wise, and burned it out. Very natural looking hole, if I do say so myself.

The wood had a significant number of long cracks, the worst of which I filled in with CA glue (super glue) and a little bit with Bali Coral powder. I at first used varnish to fill in the smaller cracks because it dries so quickly; however, I didn't like the 'look' and took 400-grit sandpaper and sanded it off, being careful to preserve as much of the woods natural form and beauty as I could. Once I got it off, I went back to multiple hand-rubbed coats of "salad bowl finish", a nice penetrating oil that dries hard and 'safe'. The lustre of this flute is really gorgeous.

Well, wouldn't you know it...when I checked the flute for a fundamental, I got a perfectly clear note that was a hair under "A", and given this happened right at my "Verdi A432" epiphany, I tuned this puppy Verdi-style. I really do plan on getting a video/audio sample of my playing it, maybe today, so I can embed it into the blog (stay tuned!)


(click on pics to enlarge)


In the pictures you notice there is no block/fetish...I kept trying different blocks but they just didn't go with the flute. I returned to the same area and picked up old pieces of cedar to see if I could come up with a unique but naturally shaped block...


Alas, I took a small, simple piece and 'roughed it' into a modest, low profile bird...and it seems to fit the flute perfectly as the body gets to stand out front and center...


It's a dream-flute that I will keep in my stead, along with the original low E Verdi I blogged about earlier. They are not only special but 2 of the finest playing flutes I've made. Too, they're matched Verdis, so I can record them together. Ah, where are those 36-hour days I need???

This new flute is in my flat-bottomed family of flutes I call Half-Pipes. They're simply a more affordable alternative to the traditional round-bore flutes. This one is a mid F#, which is about as low as I can make these due to physics and equipment limitations. The wood is unknown (gifted to me), though I suspect it's one of the more dense varieties of Mahogany (and Poplar on the bottom)...this one has some heft to it. Normally I don't adorn these flutes as it adds to the price a little, but I had this crazy idea to relief-burn a giant Kokopelli since I had good wall thickness in the flute. The block is a firetail made from Zebrawood...I like the wood for blocks and endcaps, but I've never felt the urge to buy it to make flute bodies, for some reason. Maybe one day I'll change my mind. As always, click on pics to enlarge:

Two new flutes to share with you...shortly I'll put up a sound sample, but it's just pics for now. First up is my new Low E with the Verdi A432 tuning. The body is Papua New Guinea Walnut and the block is Sapele, though it's mostly the whiter sapwood (see second flute for Sapele heartwood). I wanted a block with a "V" in it to stand for Verdi and as I took the wood and began shaping it, it came out like a geometric ram/goat:

(click on pics to enlarge)





A couple of years ago I purchased a board of Cocobolo that had some of the most stunning patterns I've ever seen in that wood...and it did not disappoint as I rounded it all down. Cocobolo is an oily wood but sands/polishes to this glass-like surface. Many finishes don't adhere well to the wood, and this is simply hand-sanded to 1,200-grit and a coat of Danish wood oil applied. It has a gorgeous natural lustre just as it is. The Praying Eagle fetish is from Sapele (heartwood) and helps bring out the oranges in the flute.






Carpe Diem, y'all!!!