How to Make a Sweet Potato Ocarina out of clay, instructions on how to make a ceramic 10 finger hole ocarina... Ocarinas - clay whistle flutes, sweet potato. Ceramic musical instruments.

Ocarinas by K. Dunster

How to Make a Clay Sweet Potato Ocarina

Page Twenty Three






Cleaning up the Voicing Area

The ocarina for the most part is made. It doesn't, however, look pretty at all. What remains to be done is the "finishing work." This involves leveling rough spots and filling in dents and dings that occurred during the construction process. The mouthpiece will be shortened and the shape refined. After the finger holes are cleaned up, there is a final check of the tuning.

The area around the voicing and mouthpiece will be cleaned up first



(Click on pictures for a larger view)

tuning 29

The coils of clay that hold the mouthpiece in position need to be smoothed down and the clay wedges must be tapered at the edges. The arrows in Figure 2 show where the wedges were trimmed.
tuning 30

(Figure 3) Apply slip on the rims of the wedges and (Figure 4) around the clay coils that secure the mouthpiece.

tuning 31

Press small coils of clay on to the slipped areas.
tuning 32

Use the clean-up tool and fettling knife (tool #2 and tool #4 to partially smooth the coils.

tuning 33

The ocarina should look something like this. It is still rough, but that will be fixed.
tuning 34

Back view, showing the voicing.


Next: Shaping the Mouthpiece >>



Introduction and Tools 1 | Forming the Body 2 3 | Making the Mouthpiece 4 5 6 | Position Mouthpiece-Cut Voicing 7 8 9 10 11 | Finger Holes 12 13 14 | Align Mouthpiece 15 16 | Adjust Voicing Size 17 | Attach Mouthpiece 18 19 | Tuning 20 | Assembling the Body 21 22 | Tidying up the Ocarina-Finishing 23 24 25 26 27 | Plaster Ocarina Mold | Clay Ocarina Mold | Make an Ocarina using a Clay Mold | Make an Ocarina Without a Mold | Glaze a Ceramic Ocarina | Glaze a Dragon Ocarina


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