Clay whistle
I know this isn't a drawing, but I spent a couple of hours making it, so I'm posting it instead of a drawing. I've become really interested in clay whistles, since I taught my private student to make one. You make two small pinch pots and join them together so you have a hollow ball. Then you make a mouthpiece by forming clay around a popsicle stick and then pulling out the stick. You make a hole in the ball, and shape one side of the hole into a wedge shape. You join the mouthpiece into the hole at an angle, so that the air blown through it will split when it hits the wedge. If you join it at the right angle, it produces a tone. I made this ball oblong instead of round, and added features and limbs to make a creature that sings when you blow in its mouth.
He's adorable! Can you fire him so he won't dissolve if the person blowing into him is a bit on the spitty side? I guess they'd get muddy lips, too... You could fire him and then color maybe the part away from his beak unless you used fired glaze... You've got to make more of these; variations!
ReplyDeleteOh! Tomorrow you could sketch him... He kind of looks like he's not sure how he got here...
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm going to fire him... Manassas Clay, where I bought the clay, lets you have two firings for free - the first to get bisqueware, and a second firing for glazes. But you have to pay for the glazes, so I just paint them with acrylics. And I'm planning on making a whole fleet of these things. This one is called Hubert.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, because when you make these whistles, you have to blow into the wet clay to make sure you have the angle right and it will make a sound... and your lips turn white with dried clay! Good clean clay...
ReplyDeleteAh, it's probably fabulous for your lips. A lip mask.
ReplyDeleteDon't you think the sound will change when it's fired?