Then I tried two more sweet potatos, both of which ended up in the bucket after hours of trying to get a decent tone out of them. I have no idea at all why I can get a sweet tone from my English pendants, but not the sweet potato. I know I have had trouble with the larger pendant ones, so maybe it's the same problem. Diagnosing it, on the other hand, is not so simple.
Then there were the two sculptural pieces I was making for a friend. The one was the shape of a woman. I loved the sculpture. But when I tried to tune it, I couldn't get the last not AT ALL. So I tried shortening the chamber, keeping the sculpture the same. This time no low notes, AT ALL. So I shortened it yet again, and now have a soprano with the body of an alto. And you can barely fit your fingers on it.
So I also made a whale pendant. This one should have been easy, but no matter what I did - always airy.
The next morning I tried the woman one, and had lost both the high and low note on it. On half of my belly-rinas I had the shrill squealing high note that I can't seem to figure out where it comes from.
So I tinkered with the ramp on the woman and got it to play again. Tinkered with the belly-rinas, and I'm hoping they will stay okay through the kiln firing.
I wanted to to a smoke firing tomorrow, but we'll be out all day. So unless I can get one going in the afternoon, I'll have to wait until Friday.
I look forward to after the medieval faire when I can spend more time on each ocarina and maybe get this thing down to a "t". I have this idea that the sweet potato is more special than a pendant as more people buy them, and they more resemble flutes and instruments than do the pendant ones.
My friend from Yahoo Groups, Massieko, who received the ocarina I made for the exchange, has offered to make another exchange - one of his sweet potatos for a belly-rina. I'm all up for that as maybe I'll see something I don't see with my ocarinas.
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