Clay Ocarina - 4 Hole - Tuneful Tortoise

I visited a Festival of Latin America in London, back in 2022, and aside from the amazing food and dance, I also noticed these little Ocarinas, made from clay. Ocarinas are pretty ancient - and are estimated to be over 12,000 years old, and vary in design, tone(s), and complexity from country to country. These were apparently from Mexico, but I was not able to play them (sensibly for hygiene reasons), so didn't....and slightly regretted it!

Later on, I did a river clay project - taking him to a local river to extract clay from the river bed. So a few years later, I found that someone was selling similar items on eBay and I got one, thinking I could 'reverse-engineer' how to make one. I confess, I needed some tips from YouTube, but here's the process I went through, which is arguably an amalgamation of techniques used to achieve this result, and I think the 'found clay' aspect makes it a little more involved, but perhaps also more authentic as a teaching process for kids (and big kids) to really appreciate just how people have used ceramics over the years...

Being an engineer by trade, I couldn't help also get into the 'science bit' of trying to tune them. The short answer is - it's harder than you think - but the good news is, if you create an octave, it does not matter too much if it 'shifts up' when you fire it, as it will still be 'tuneful'. However, if you do want to hit a 'C5' octave accurately - it will need more trial and error, and I've gone into some detail about that, which only makes me appreciate more how much people just 'figured this out' by trail and error in ancient times (without a Tuning App)!

(Not to be disparaging about the likely 'touristic' ocarina I purchased on eBay, but these are more 'for kids' and are not finely tuned. For those advanced ocarinas - you can fine specialists online that sell them tuned professionally, and that's really impressive, but as I said, the good news is, the general principles apply even with a 'fun' build - it'll still be tuneful!).

You will need very little complex tools - as of course these ocarina were made by ancient civilisations without anything more fancy than a few sticks, sharp flints, and of course a fire!

In modern times, I found a couple lolly-pop and cocktail sticks are enough to get things done! We fired these in the school kiln, and you may have a studio who might allow you some experimentation*

Clay can of course be dug up (link)

Or you can buy it from shops like this (link)

Ceramics tools can be purchased online cheaply enough (link)

*I also did some tests at the Royal College of Art's Ceramics & Glass Dept. where I was working at a Technologist in Residence for Ecological Citizens (link if curious) - thanks to the wonderful technicians for helping out!

Set two pieces of wood ~1cm thick either side of a lump of kneaded clay. You can use some string or wire, with sticks 'handles' at either end as a way to 'pull through' the clay. This ensures things are a consistent thickness. I found leaving these slabs for 20-30 mins made them a little firmer (less sticky) to work with.

I cut out two discs as shown, and pressed them into two little bowls/cups as shown. It does not matter two much if these are a bit 'rough' as we can tidy them up later. These will form the top and bottom or the Tortoise's body, a bit like an Easter Egg.

It might be your 'cups' have an uneven edge, You can either be patient and keep working them to get them level, or 'cheat' and use a knife to trim these flat. To do this, I used a piece of wood (technically a 'rib' used in pottery), as a way to 'raise up' the knife, and then carefully rotated the pot on the table (upside down) to trim the rim to be the same height. Keep the scraps to one side - we'll use those later!

You can now cross hatch the two matching halves as shown. This can be using the scalpel (as it was to hand), but you can use a cocktail stick or twig if you wanted to be more 'ancient rustic Mexican artist' about it.

As you work with clay, you'll likely have loads of tiny bits, some dried out, some still soft. If you put these in some warm water, and allow to soak, you'll have a soft clay mix, which you can work into a smooth paste or 'slip' using a paintbrush or twig. This can be used to stick clay pieces together. Apply as shown.

Press the two halves together and smooth the edges with your fingers as shown. This requires a bit of care so as not to crush the 'ball', as you want to keep the air inside.

The next step is to use a piece of wood, with a flat area to 'beat' the clay into shape. Do lots of small 'taps' and keep moving the ball around.

This has an additional effect of making the clay more 'dense' as it make the molecules compress together, making a more robust end product, as well as being satisfying to do! It's almost 'meditative' once you get good at it! It's also a very ancient technique, use way back since the beginning of civilisation.

I first learnt this technique when I was a teenager, when I visited an exhibition by ceramicist, Magdalene Odundo, in Cumbria (where I grew up), and was blown away by the incredible forms she created with this technique. If you ever thought pots were 'crude and rustic' - or purely 'functional' - her work is a striking testament to how delicate and captivating it can be, using fundamentally 'simple' techniques taking to a high level of mastery. If you are curious - the shiny surface is not even glazed, but is instead 'burnished' using spoons, glass, and other smooth objects. Again, with practice this becomes very satisfying as a rhythmic and absorbing process, and was likely the earliest form of making ceramics smooth and hence easier to clean and care for.

You can either simply press this flatter, or do so by incremental 'taps' with the piece of wood. Either way, you want it to be more 'tortoise' shaped.

Next take the 'scrap' clay you cut off, and knead (squish air out of) into a ball, and take a small mount and from into the 'tail'. This is somewhat 'oversize' for a tail, but is where you'll blow into. The approximate side was a bit thicker than my thumb end.

Use the cross-hatch + slip technique to attach as shown. Smooth out any slip which splurges out the edges. But you want to be sure to firmly stick it on.

(Take a look at the last picture - to see how to want the 'tangent' of the inlet to flow nicely to the rounded form of the body, and the other side is almost like a 'shoulder' - this is what you want).

Chances are if like me, you're doing this as a hobby / side hustle, so you may well have taken most of your evening to get this far, if you're new to the process (or like me, documenting it as I go!), so best to wrap it in clingfilm / plastic bag and leave until the next day. Given the 'critical' nature of the mouthpiece, this really allows the clay join to 'equilibrate' with the body - meaning the bond 'strengthens' and the moisture difference between the slip and the body clay evens out, again making it better to work with for the next stage.

You may even want to get inspired and watch some of the other creations of Aleksandrs Maijers on YouTube!

Part of what I really enjoyed about my River Clay Project I first did with my son, (and later with his school), and then advanced technical aspects with the Royal College of Art - was reflecting on how even the simplest of processes requires tools...

...Humans have been described as 'the tool making Ape', and although some other primates do use basic tools (sticks to crack nuts, and tease out ants to eat), Humans have clearly overtaken our nearest ancestors by a degree which is simply staggering.

And yet, when you ask most people to sharpen a pencil with a knife, many will not have this skill, as it's arguably a unnecessary skill in a digital age (or you just use a Biro!). With that said, fine motor skills and knowing when something is 'just so' is a skill I find invaluable as an Engineer and Designer - Having just been reading "The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force" by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley, the idea that the brain 'stops developing' as an adult, has been debunked by recent neuroscience - and it's important to remind ourselves that telling ourselves that "oh, I'm not 'good with my hands'" is not something that is insurmountable - both neurologically and physiologically. Working with clay may be unnecessary in an age of cheap dinner sets for less money than most of us earn in a day, but it's worth pausing to reflect on how much this lack of connection is in part to blame for the problems of consumerism - perhaps we never pause to think just how remarkable it is to have a cereal bowl for $1, which is 'flawless' and can potentially last a lifetime - or even many lifetimes, with careful use.

So, to get back to the task at hand, you'll need to cut a 'wedge' shape in a lollipop stick, like shown, and do the same with the other half. You may well find that your first attempt is quite crude, and you'll need to 'hone' it on a piece of sanding paper (or you could use some sandstone if you wanted to be more 'rustic'), but it's worth noting that even something as simple as 'honing a stick' will require you to be quite diligent, otherwise the next step will simply go wrong!

Making a perfect note whistle through a volume of clay might look simple, but now you'll really test how careful you've been. The good news is, it's not rocket science or brain surgery, but it's humbling to appreciate it'll likely not work first time, unlike most of our 'frictionless' apps and widgets. Craft might be superfluous, but that does not make it unsatisfying when you get it right!

Now you insert the lollypop stick into the clay, as shown. Note how you want to imagine the lollipop stick making contact with the inside edge of the body. Next insert your other stick around 45 degrees so as to 'connect' with the first lollipop stick. Take a look at the diagram to help visualise what you're aiming for.

Next, dig out the aperture with either a knife, or some other sharpened sticks. Smooth out this detail as shown. You can then remove the first stick. It's possible it may be stuck - in which case gently wiggle it, and it may be this changes your shape, so you may need to clean and reinsert it again, and gentle reform areas so it's all smooth and the air flows well. Any rough bits will make it sound less good.

As per my other comment - this is a humbling moment of how tricky it is, and requires some patience, but fundamentally it's not complex - but very satisfying to get a pleasing tune form a lump of 'mud'! One had to wonder what the first human to do this must have felt like - it must have felt like something of the 'Gods' to create a noise that is both non-human, yet seems 'of us' when it happens. Don't get me wrong, I love my smartphone like anyone else, but it never feels like I've 'created something poetic and artful from nothing'.

Side note: Some troubleshooting guides here, in case needed.

I suggest marking out the holes - keep small for now- just so you don't add any features that would get in the way or them, and also to place where feels natural for your fingers to be placed.

Now you are proficient in cross-hatch + slip methods, use some of the scrap clay to make a head and legs, and attach as shown. Granted the tortoise I tried to 'reverse-engineer' somewhat lacks the 'shell's edge', but you can of course add one if you like. The main point is you have created a 'cavity' for the air to resonate and produce a tune, and all else outside of this (so long as not in the way of the holes and your fingers) can be embellished and styled as you wish!

You can scribe some nice patterns as shown. Be aware your holes will be enlarged later, so don't make the patterns too close! If you wish, this is a good time to wrap in cling film and rest for an evening/day, as this will only firm-up the clay (to what is known as 'leather-hard') and that's good for the next steps.

If you are striving for a 'accurate musical instrument' this is a necessary step the professionals do... to cut in half and clean up any ragged edges inside. It's not for the faint hearted, as it means hacking up your creation, and hoping you can put it back together. You can actually skip this if you are happy with a 'tuneful whistle' with approximate notes, and a sort-of-clean-sound. Indeed, the 'touristic' Ocarina a purchased is 'unfinished' like this, and is still perfectly charming, it's just not going to play a perfect do-re-mi... scale!

If you are feeling bold, use a scalpel top slice round the lower portion of the turtle. You will see inside, that what you thought was a well made vessel, is somewhat of a mess! This is normal, and next just carefully remove any rough bits with the lollypop sticks and smooth with your fingers. If needed, use a damp sponge to 'even out' the inside - but don't make too wet!

Once happy, carefully cross hatch, and don't add too much slip/water, and press back together. You can now smooth out with your finger, and you may well need to re-do some of the designs, but this is not too tricky if simple.

You can either use a ceramicist's hole making tool, which is a tapered spike of metal tube, or you can use a plastic drinking straw, or whatever else you have to enlarge the hole. Take your time, so as not to make a mess of the inside again! You don't want to make it too big, but you'll see the approximate sizings here. Next we'll attempt to 'tune' things!

The idea is to use an App to tune your ocarina, for example: https://stonekick.com/tuner.html

You'll blow through the ocarina, with the desired holes covered, and then remove material in the given hole until correct, and then move on...but first to know how this works in reality, as clay of course is not a 'static' thing, and will change with firing (it'll shrink!) and will change tune!

Tip: Try to keep the same or consistent breathing force for each note, so you don't get varying results.

This is the serious science bit, and as I've gleefully said, given your near-prehistoric great-great-great-and-so-on-grand-parents were knocking these out without a auto-tuning app, take a moment to marvel as how skilled your neanderthal family was!

Right, so, the general idea is that you want to start with all the holes CLOSED. What you blow is the 'natural' resonance of the Ocarina. Chances are it's not a 'A' note bang-on, unless you're very lucky! So you're going to have to work with the range that comes from it. But the general idea is you'll move through the notes in the sequence shown. (white is open and black is covered up with your finger).

So let's say your 'natural' resonant first note is a C4, you'd want to subsequently tune all the successive holes. This sounds fine, if it were not for one annoying property of clay - it SHRINKS!

This means, your ocarina will get about 10-15% smaller. Meaning your musical scale will move about a 'semitone' (on average) once fired. It's worth cutting 'test tiles' when the clay is wet, and measuring them, before and after firing and this will give you some data on tuning for future ocarinas!

[As I was using 'found' clay, I needed to find it this out myself, but if buying shop-bought clay, they should tell you the shrinkage, but of course this is still a variable thing depending on what temperature you fire to, so the key it to be consistent - if you bisque fire to 950C and glaze at 1020C, as I did, (getting a 13% shrinkage rate overall) keep it at that for future works].

Hopefully this graph will make sense. I've plotted the 8 positions in increasing in the 'Do(1)-re(2)-mi(3)-fa(4)-so(5)-la(6)-ti(7)-do(8)' scale.

If you wanted to hit a C5 note when fired/dry, you'd need to tune the *wet* (unfired) pot to be around a B4, so that when it shrank by about a semitone, this would make it 'go up' to C5.

The blue line is the 'wet' (unfired) curve of Do-Re-Mi... and the grey line if the fired 'dry' target we hope we'll hit.

If you are lucky, your Tortoise (all close holes) will be 494Hz, but chances are, it won't be!

-

Mine started off at 635Hz, which is a D#5, which is hard to 'pull down' to a B4 sadly, so I just have to 'work with it' in its natural resonance (until I get better at making 'B4 natural' Tortoises! The good news as I've mentioned is you can still 'create the scale' upwards from there!

So that is what we will do! And it will still be tuneful!

As mentioned, I watched a bunch of people online do this, and I think all of them have had musical backgrounds as they gave very little explanation on what actually happens from step to step! Luckily my wife plays piano, so explained this all to me and I made a little note on how to do it in the correct order. Which now seems obvious to me now (so I get why the videos didn't got into detail!) but at the time was bewildering. So hope it helps you!

The gist is, the hole you have played (the change in fingering) is the one you're tuning. Quite how this works frankly still boggles my mind, but it does work. And even if your Tortoise is 'shifted' to to start on a B or whatever, it'll still cover an octave nicely.

So after much careful shaving material out of the holes, I had the sequence done.

If you flip between the first graph and the second, you can see how the firing (shrinkage) 'pushes up' the frequencies. So in future my River Clay shrinks about 2 notes!*

*Found clay is often not 'stabilised' as much with 'crank' and 'ball clay', so it shrinks a lot. It also had higher than normal organic matter, which burns off, again adding to increased shrinkage.

I was lucky to be able to fire these at RCA as mentioned, and control the firings quite accurately. I glazed the bisque firing to not only add some definition to the scribe-lines, but to also 'waterproof' the mouthpiece, so it didn't accumulate saliva (a bit 'ick' if sharing with others!) - so it can be wiped clean.

The shrinkage between bisque (950C) and glaze (1020C) firings was minimal, but again, if going for a 'professional' tuning, one would need to account for this!

And so there we have it! It worked, albeit not ready for Orchestral Performance, it'll work nicely as a tuneful little artefact! But mostly I feel it demonstrates the remarkable journey one can take from a 'primitive' process of making clay to the refined art of making musical instruments as our ancestors around the world have done, and I hope, continue to do!

Please do have a look at the river clay project in general: link

And do connect via my website, or LinkedIn.

Have fun!

Jude