I’m exceptionally happy with the way the components of this build came together. The vision, the materials on hand, and ultimately the voice kept me pleasantly preoccupied during this pandemic.

The flute is 21-5/8” in length with a 7/8’ bore diameter. Crafted from Alowood, the material is no longer available anywhere in the world. Specifically, it is plantation grown radiata pine from New Zealand. A soft wood when harvested, colorized starch was forced through the wood, creating a hard wood.  I have enough material for perhaps three more instruments. Woods used at the mouthpiece include twice dyed, box elder burl, between layers of old growth redwood burl, and capped with the alowood. Each side of the compression chamber is set with 19mm disks of box elder burl, with a different treatment, and a little hand colorizing. Lastly, the fetish block is cut from the alowood, bonded to a base of Oklahoma red cedar for moisture control. The wing overlay to this bird includes abalone, mappa burl, addl. alowood, and additional hand colorizing because I really enjoy it.

Inlay work begins at the mouthpiece with a 7mm faceted Brazilian azotic topaz, flanked by 4mm turquoise dots. Each side of the compression chamber has an additional accent of 12mm black mother of pearl, while the sound chamber is accented with a 14x24mm teardrop cut labradorite cabochon. The finger holes are separated by four 5mm abalone dots and a 6mm dome cut rainbow topaz from Rio Grande Gems. Lastly, the fetish block has a 6mm labradorite cab set to the crown, and 2.8mm hematite beads set as eyes.(A little fun fact is that the first Mars landers spotted little spherules they called “blueberries” on the Martian surface. These were little balls of hematite.)

The flute was tuned at a wood temperature of 77.3°F, with an ambient temp. of 71.9°F, and a humidity factor of 61%, at sea level.