Make a Clay Ocarina

by FunkNattidelic

325K379162

Intro: Make a Clay Ocarina

Ever since "Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time" came out, everyone associates ocarinas with Zelda and there fore, anyone interested in ocarinas is considered a die-hard Zelda fanatic!! There is alot more to Ocarinas than Zelda you know. With this Instructable, you can learn how to make wonderful masterpieces THAT SING!! And you will learn a little about the history of the Ocarina but that is besides the point...

STEP 1: The Clay

Well, obviously you need clay to make a clay ocarina. It is possible to make it out of wood but that will come some other time when i have the time, money and patience... Ocarinas have been around since the stone age. Aztecs used them for ritual purposes.

STEP 2: The Mold

I made a simple, carrot shaped mold and with this, you just wrap the clay around and seal it up. The mold can be made by taking a large chunk of clay and rolling it out on a slant to make it a sort of "Carrot" shape.

STEP 3: Wrapping the Mold

Take a hunk of that Clay and flatten it out about and inch longer than your "Carrot" mold. It must be at least 1cm thick too. You have to make it wide enough to wrap around the mold and have a bit extra.

STEP 4: Making the Mouthpiece

While the main chamber of the ocarina is firming up around the mold, We are going to make the mouthpiece. Roll out a piece of clay how ever long you want to make the mouthpiece. Take a "slot stick" (i just use a Popsicle stick with the end cut off) and force it through the mouthpiece like in the picture. Shape it however you want. Ocarinas arent just made of clay. They can be made of wood, metal, plastic, or just about anything that can be molded and will hold its shape.

STEP 5: Getting the Mold Out of the Ocarina

Cut the mold in half lengthwise and pull the mold out of the ocarina body.

STEP 6: Optional Step

Look closely and notice the grooves put in the edge of the body halves. These help to grip the wet "slip" clay and make a proper seal.

STEP 7: "Slipping" the Body

Slip is a muddy clay mixture. To make it, just put a bunch of small clay pieces in a bowl and fill it up with water just over the clay. Let it sit for a day or so. Put the slip on the grooved edges of the body and then smush the two halves together!! In medival times, ocarinas were made of wood and shaped like a stone. They were called Pendant ocarinas. We are making a Sweet Potato Ocarina.

STEP 8: Marking the Voicing

Place the mouth piece up to the bottom of the ocarina. Trace around the bottom and about 1/3 a ways up the ocarina. This is the outline for the voicing or voice box. The voicing is what makes the noise.

STEP 9: Cutting and Perfecting the Voicing

Put the popsicle stick into the mouthpiece and put the mouthpiece into the hole with the popsicle stick in it. push the popsicle stick into the clay in front of it and cut on a slant towards the popsicle stick. This slant makes noise when air is blown onto it.

STEP 10: Making the Holes

There is a chart on making the holes at green vurdigo Green vurdigo has instructions on making ocarinas without a mold if you don't have a mold.

STEP 11: Sanding

After it is dried out (may take a few days depending on the size of it...) you can sand it with a low grit sanding pad and then if you really want to make it look good, you can burnish it by taking a metal spoon and rubbing the back of it on the clay in little circles. It makes it really shiny and it is quite interesting. Believe it or not, Ocarinas are on Wikipedia. There are multi-chambered ocarinas that make a polyphonic noise. it is kind of like bagpipes. The bass and tenor drones work at the same time as the chanter. the bass and tenor sound chambers on the ocarina work the same time as the one with the finger holes.

STEP 12: Finishing Touches

After your done your optional burnishing, you can engrave it with something, keep it on a shelf as is, get it fired, glaze it and then get it fired, JUST BE CREATIVE!!!

157 Comments

gusabbott 5 years ago

Is 1 pound of clay enough to make it?

ZaRue 3 years ago

You probably could make more than one with a pound of clay.

FFVIIBOY 14 years ago

Does yours make noise?

FunkNattidelic 14 years ago

It does if you cut the voicing correctly,
If you follow all of the steps you should have a working instrument. =P

FFVIIBOY 14 years ago

Cool, if it takes a few days to dry then i dont have the patience for this but ill make this eventually, im not very paitent. I never actually played ocarina of time but i hav phantom hourglass and i can play the original on this website but i cant save, yesterday i spent from 8 in the morning to 9 at night playin but somethin went rong with the computer and i lost ALL that stuff i did, i was so mad i almost fainted

mclason 12 years ago

i don't think anyone cares about your phantom hourglass story. . .

FFVIIBOY 12 years ago

I dont even remember posting that Phantom Hourglass comment but yeah I used to always go on and on so things Im talking about make sense, but I dont really do that anymore, for example...

um7kay 13 years ago

get a life?

FFVIIBOY 13 years ago

why dont y- oh who am i kiddin your right

FFVIIBOY 13 years ago

i have ocarina of time now on my computer but im stuck on the boss of the forest dungeon

Brian Wall 13 years ago

im working on one now i couldnt get the voicing right

Dawn ChérieW 3 years ago

Use it like glue. Slip is just thinner clay to attach one piece to another. Also, remember to kid of rough up the surfaces that are to be glued together.

CalebP1 9 years ago

This doesnt really work. Im using the correct methods and items but after taking the mould from the clay, every thing just flops and doesn't work. Why?

MickeyM3 8 years ago

I think you didn't let the clay harden enough. I feel like this is a longer project, that takes maybe a week to do (for hardening/dry time).

leon0862 12 years ago

im pissed the only clay i could find around town is freakin air dry and baking and they suck where can i find the good made clay >O<
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