How to Make a Sweet Potato Ocarina out of clay, instructions on how to make a ceramic 10 finger hole ocarina...

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 Two

Making the Ocarina Body using a clay "drape" mold

When making an ocarina, start by forming the body. This is the hollow "resonating chamber" of the ocarina. The size determines whether the ocarina will be low or high pitched. The larger the interior of the body, the lower the ocarina will sound.

There are several ways of building a hollow clay form, such pinching, coiling, soft slab, throwing on the potters' wheel, or using a drape or slump mold. In this tutorial, I will show three forming methods: 1) using a plaster slump mold, 2) using a soft clay slab with a paper pattern, and 3) using a clay "hump" or "drape" mold (shown below on this page).

If you would rather make the ocarina body by pinching, coiling, or on the potters' wheel, that's fine. You may skip the next three pages and go directly to making the mouthpiece.
Whatever forming method you choose, be sure to make a flattened area. This is where the mouthpiece will be attached.

Tool List

(Click on pictures for a larger view)

pottery handbuilding-rolling out the clay

Roll out the clay using an ordinary rolling pin. To get a uniform thickness, use wood dowels (tool #13) as spacers. This is a "poor man's slab roller."

Place the bisque fired (or unfired but COMPLETELY dried) ocarina mold on the rolled-out clay slab, flat side down. Position the mold so that the pointed tip is 1/2 to 1 inch from the edge of the slab.

Starting at the pointed end of the mold, fold the clay slab over the top of it.

Figure 1 Wrap the clay as close as possible to the mold and bevel the edge (indicated by the arrows) with the fettling knife (tool #4). Figure 2 Wet the beveled edge with water.

Now fold the other side of the clay slab over the mold and wrap it as snugly as possible. Press it firmly on to the wet beveled edge.

Next: Forming the Body - continued >>