Group Members:
Clay Whistles:
Our intention is to develop a marketable ceramic product design to share with potters and artisans in rural Guyana. Clay whistles (one note) and ocarinas (multiple notes) were developed by the indigenous peoples of Central and South America, but are not currently being produced by potters in the Rupununi region of Guyana.
How do you make them?
Ceramic whistles are deceptively simple. Much trial and error has gone into learning the necessary techniques to make an ocarina that not only looks good, but also produces a beautiful, clear tone when you blow into it.
And Then How Do you Make Them Sound Alike ??
In an effort to produce an 'orchestra set' of ocarinas that a group of people could play together, we decided to make plaster molds. Students and faculty created the models for the molds in the shape of a turtle, a fish, a frog, an alligator, and a capybara (the world's largest rodent; native to Guyana). We have made an initial set of turtle ocarinas that sound reasonably similar, and we're starting to learn to play simple songs like 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', as well as a Macushi Indian song from the region we are visiting. We'll be bringing lots of our ocarinas with us to Yupukari, and look forward to working with village musicians to learn how to play them.