[Shaku] The Cerute - my ceramic shakuhachi

This is a copy of an article I have posted on the Shakuhachi Forum.

http://shakuhachiforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=636

An image is available there.

For the last twenty-five years I have been making pottery and am quite
familiar with ceramic techniques and processes. So, it was no surprise to me
that after two years of making and exploring Shakuhachi in bamboo, I would
want to see how they sounded if made of clay.

I began with a lathed wooden model of the bore, based on the tapered
dimensions in "Blowing Zen" by Carl Abbott. Knowing I will have shrinkage to
allow for, my model started at 30mm external diameter, tapering to 22mm at
the choke, with no bell as I wanted to make a one-piece mold in which to
slip-cast my flutes.
With reasonable success I produced a mold 565mm in length. After drying the
plaster mold for two weeks I made up some slip (clay made into a fluid using
deflocculants) and began to cast flutes. In this process, the longer you
leave the slip in the mold, the thicker the wall section of the flute, so my
first few casts were to determine this time period.
Once the bore was cast I allowed it to dry to 'leather hard', firm but not
brittle. At this point I measured and hand drilled the holes and broadly
initiated the Utaguchi. I then dried the flutes.
When I had a few dried I bisque fired them to harden them enough to contimue
shaping the Utaguchi and fine tune. I could get a sound from them quite
easily at all stages. At the bisque stage I am using various grades of sand
paper to do my shaping. I have to 'get it right' at this stage because once
they are vitrified in the next firing, they are too hard to alter unless you
use a diamond tipped dentist drill.
I thin dipped the flutes into glaze, wiping off the outer surface as I only
want glaze on the inside. Not for any visual or auditory reason, but because
the flute needs to sit in the kiln and glaze cannot be in contact with the
kiln shelving or it will fuse to it. I glaze both sides of the Utaguchi.
So after the glaze firing, the inside of the flute is glass and the outside
bare clay.

[img]http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5986/cerutev11pc5.jpg[/img]

The flute had shrunken from 555mm to 505mm, a ten percent reduction, and is
playing a 'D' fundamental. So this version looks like it may become my
standard 1.8.
It is very bright and responsive. I am very pleased with this exploration
but not yet content. The otsu register plays well, but the upper kan is
difficult. I suspect the shorter length, I always found short bamboo more
difficult in the kan register, plus the narrow bell end.

I am already preparing my next version to be longer and a little fatter.

I am calling them 'Cerutes' - Ceramic Flute, they can be left out in the sun
or rain, played in the shower or bath, and washed in the dishwasher. But are
not to be dropped.

I enjoy playing them, the narrow bore is different but quite managable, the
sound is quite different to my jinashi bamboo Shak's. It is more like a
jiari. Glass and Ceramic are harder than steel, perhaps I will make some out
of porcelain, which is even harder than clay, more like glass.

I am also going to apply a gold lustre to the glazed upper side of the
Utaguchi, a modest embellishment of luxury

_____________________________________________

List un/subscription information is at:
 http://communication.ucsd.edu/shaku/listsub.html
Received on Sat Aug 12 08:32 PDT 2006