The photograph above is part of a display we keep in our house from our year in Arizona. I carved the fake kokopelli petroglyph as well as the Native American Flute.
The year was 1991. Laura was on sabbatical from Furman and had an opportunity to do research at the University of Arizona. I quit my teaching job and we moved to Tucson for a year. Each morning I would drop her off at her lab, then go wander in the desert.
During this time I was absorbing all things Southwestern – culture, climate, music, etc. I had come across the music of R. Carlos Nakai, and was enthralled with the haunting pentatonic sounds. I met a Hopi Indian, whose name I cannot recall right now, and he taught me how to carve Native American flutes from bamboo.
I had submitted the photograph as one of my assignments for the Digital Photography School. It attracted the interested of another photographer, who wanted to know how the flutes were carved. In response, I’ve put together some instructions for how to carve these flutes. These instructions are in Adobe Acrobat format, and can be downloaded from the following link:
Native American Flute Instructions
very simple and direct instructions, headed to the shop with my stick of bambo, its not the right size, so this will be a trial and practice run, thanks a bunch rc
well i did it and it make sound, but lol i kept messing with it to get it better and i messed it up lol, the walls on this piece were to thin. but i know what to do now, so thanks a bunch.
It took me multiple tries before I got it right, too. If you’ve got one that makes sound, that’s half the battle.