My latest obsession - handmade ocarinas

[Steve Miller]

You have the coolest hobbies!

[AndyD]

Yes, wonderful, and cool hobby.

Your thread title had me chuckling 'latest obsession'.
I have to stop myself, from things like buying one of every instrument just to try, or David Winter vintage miniature houses.

I particularly like the seal lower left on first photo.

[RealPlayer]

Really cool, Jodi! I love your designs and they sound great. Move over, ukuleles!

Are you going to sell some of your creations?

[Daniel]

Oh, yes! I think they would sell.

[Jodi]

I will eventually make enough to sell some of them in the gallery, I am currently too attached to the ones I have made so far to let them go! As in most things clay related (for me, anyway, as I love to hand decorate each piece) they are incredibly time consuming to make.

[Jodi]

We unloaded the glaze kiln yesterday and a few more were fired. Here’s a video I made showing the difference in pitch after the firing - it went from close to an E major scale to an F#, so a whole step up. This was fired to cone 10 in the gas kiln, I can’t remember the exact shrinkage of this clay - somewhere around 12 - 14%. (Turn the sound up to hear the iPad video, then back down before I play at the end).

Link to video

[Daniel]

️

[Mark]

So cool!

[RealPlayer]

Some recent composer has an orchestral piece where the players put down their instruments and play ocarinas. I think Ligeti.

[Jodi]

I bought a Japanese made plastic ocarina to try. I played the recorder and the clarinet when I was younger - The ocarina is a little trickier that those - two thumb holes and you use every finger to cover a hole (or two) - so the fingerings don’t feel intuitive (based on what I’m used to playing). Fun fact - Ennio Morricone used an ocarina in his music for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.