9/13/2010 update - Commissioned ocarina!

Okay, so as some of you know, a while ago my kiln decided to be difficult and stop doing what I tell it to. Good news is that this gets fixed in October/November. Bad news is?

I was supposed to be firing an ocarina someone had commissioned.

So I earned a little bit of cash doing other things for a few months, and that's allowed me to come in possession of a few tools I've been eying for some time! Namely, a drill, belt sander, jigsaw, files, wood-carving knives, and then some. I'm assuming most people will guess where this is leading.

That's right. Wooden ocarina time.

I care a lot about those who seek my services being happy with me, so to make up for the lengthy wait, I decided to simply make a new, prettier and decidedly more valuable ocarina free of charge in place of the clay one sitting in my workshop and is now probably weather-damaged. Here is a progress snapshot - I only really started today, though yesterday I was more or less fiddling around with wood and being experimental.

My apologies for the quality of the picture. Webcam snapshot.

Regrettably, I don't know what type of woods these are. The dealer here only speaks Thai and it was hassle enough trying to establish that it was safe to use as a musical instrument, let alone get information on the specific types of wood that he likely only knows the Thai names of.

The shape is a distortion of my regular ACs, inspired in part by elongated ocarinas by artists such as Chen Ching. The wood I have is too thin (about .75") so I had to layer more wood over it, similarly to the banding on Charlie Hind's ocarinas. I have a few scruples with this, as I feel that banding is Mr. Hind's "thing", so to speak, so chances are I won't be making ocarinas in this fashion too often unless I'm commissioned to. Though my first batch of wooden instruments would be done in this style until the woods run out.

As for how I'm finding the wood to work with? I am pleasantly surprised. With the right tools, wood isn't very difficult to work with at all. It takes a bit of getting used to, though. I'm quite sure beyond any reasonable doubt that I am more than capable of producing a voicing just as or perhaps more capable than those of my ceramic ocarinas. Wood is also more easily adjustable than clay and is therefore more versatile in ocarina making - which means that should I continue with wood, I would easily be able to accommodate custom orders for key and breath pressure.

My biggest issue is that I don't have enough money for purchasing a router. About $110 USD ($150 if I include the various router bits) so I need to carve the interior chamber by hand. It's a real killer I tell you - especially since this ocarinas' interior chamber is huge (it's an Eb tenor)! This will take me a couple of weeks to do at least.

I'm thinking of perhaps offering a pre-ordered wooden AC for $250... the person contacts me, orders one, and pays for it straight away, and I make it and ship it to him in a month or something like that. I could use the money I get from that purchase to buy myself a router to work on both of these... Is this a good idea?

Tell me what you think about the ocarina and my pre-order idea, guys! Thanks a lot for coming to look.