A Turtle Ocarina

 Welcome back! I did manage to make a sound recording of the mourning dove whistle from last week, but now I just have to figure out how to embed it into this blog. An ocarina makes various sounds when blown depending on how many of the holes are covered. This is my attempt at a turtle ocarina. He still needs a little tweaking and smoothing, but you get the idea .I will go through the steps with you tomorrow, now that it is midnight!....



See you then.










Before I start, I will try to embed the sound recording for the mourning dove whistle below.



Well, it is a little bit large, but I better not fiddle with it...leave well enough alone.
Okay,
Slice off a slab of clay about 1 inch thick from your block, wedge it well, and form it into an oval ball shape, like a lemon. If it is too large, slice off one end and save in a baggie for the smaller parts later. Reshape your lemon and then slice it lengthwise through it, but not directly in half. Slice it about 1/2 inch in from one side, so the other side is about 11/2 to 2 inches deep.

Take the smaller side and roll it out on your board to about 1/4 inch thick. Cover it and set it aside.
Cup the larger side in your hand and scoop out the center with a melon baller or small spoon until the outer wall is about 1/4 inch thick.

You need to smooth out the interior chamber with your finger, and then pinch all around until it fits onto your base, or a close fit, as shown.

Trim the base to fit.

Now take some of the leftover clay and shape and roll it into a sausage shape about 3 inches long.
Flatten it with the rolling pin, and cut it into 5 pieces, 4 for the feet, and one for the tail.
Shape the 2 bottom feet or flippers each into a rectangle shape, then score and slurry them and slurry the base where you will attach them. With the two top flippers, I stretched and bent them to look more like flippers, then I scored, slurried, and attached them to the base, pressing them firmly and then smoothing them in. Score around the rest of the base where you are going to attach the turtle's back, and score the rim of the turtle's back too.

Take the last small piece that you cut and form it into a triangle shape for the tail. This will also  be the mouthpiece so it could be a little thicker than 1/4 inch. Score and slurry the end and attach it firmly between the two lower flippers on the base.Let it sit and firm up for about 1/2 hour before you attach the top to the base.
While you wait, you could form the turtle's head with a piece of your leftover clay. Form a small oval ball about 1/2 inch in diameter and attach it to the front of the shell.

Smooth it into the shell to hide the seam and extend it to look like a neck.
Slurry the scored rim of your shell and slurry the base. Attach firmly and hide the seam by smoothing with your finger or a small tool.
Insert a nail file into the tail until it reaches part way into the hollow chamber and leave it there while you create the bevel.
Turn him over and make a hole with your pin tool or large needle straight down into the hollow chamber until it touches the nail file. The hole should be about 1 inch from the base of the tail.Make the hole larger and peel out the excess clay around the hole, so that a regular pencil fits in. Put the pencil (no eraser end) into the hole, bend it toward the turtle's head at a 45 degree angle, and firmly press as you drag it out of the hole. Now, move the nail file out and wipe off any excess clay bits. Sometimes you will need to push the nail file in and out of the mouthpiece to get a clear sound. This picture shows the bevel side. After you get your whistle to blow, place your turtle in a plastic bag overnight. We'll complete the other ocarina holes tomorrow.

Well, Thanksgiving was great and a lot of fun. Now, back to the ocarina. The picture on the left shows how I added the four ocarina holes to the turtle's shell. I used a shish-ka-bob stick and pushed each one in as I twirled the stick, making each hole about 1 inch above each flipper. When you blow the ocarina, with all four holes closed, you will hear the same sound as when it was just a whistle, but as you lift one finger at a time, until all four holes are open, you will hear a little tune. I will upload the turtle ocarina's voice as soon as I record it.
Let the ocarina dry completely on a shelf. If you would like to create a turtle shell pattern, there are several choices The shell design could be painted on prior to the first firing if you use under glazes. I'll talk more about this on the glazing tab above. My favourite method would be to paint the entire top of the shell with a light mossy green under glaze and then scratch on the design right through the coloured shell. This technique is called sgraffito and it allows the colour of the clay to show through as the design. Or, after the first firing, you could choose various glazes to create the shell pattern and fire the ocarina again. I will go into more detail when I set up the glazing tab.
See you next week!

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