Neither you, nor this flute will ever want to find yourselves together at a Woodland Native American community gathering. Ever. The snake is very powerful medicine for these folks, and not welcome outside the confines of their ceremonies.
This instrument is 20-7/8” in length, with a 7/8” bore diameter, tuned to Gm. I tuned it up from F#, by virtue of a serpent hole cut at the far end of the instrument. Absent that, the flute would think it was an F#m, and would sound that way as well. This build took one month.
Wood ingredients include a flute body and fetish of SE Asian paldao, twice dyed box elder burl, SE Asian amboyna burl, Oklahoma red cedar, systemically dyed maple (wherein the tree was fed colored water during its growth cycles prior to harvest and veneering), madrona burl, Virginia walnut burl, and two varieties of paua abalone.
The remaining ingredients include turquoise, Mexican jelly opal, Labradorite, spiny oyster, abalone dots, hematite beads, Ethiopian fire opal, iron pyrite, and powders of Bisbee AZ malachite, New Mexican pipestone, and Sleeping Beauty mine turquoise powder. The instrument is capped off with a slide off removable wrap of S. Dakota prairie rattlesnake skin, tanned here at my shop.
My wife is currently in Cave Creek AZ attending the bridal shower of my daughter Laura…..at 118° F. I remain here at Rancho Relaxo in Hermosa Beach CA, where it is currently 65°F. Hoping your summer is not marked by a 53° point spread in temperature.
