How to Make a Clay Whistle

Making clay whistles is a fun adult supervised craft for children and a craft project for the music classroom. Teaching a child about the flow of air in musical instruments plus the properties of clay is a double learning experience.

Things You'll Need

• Clay
• Cocktail stick
• Water
• Popsicle stick

Instructions

Making the body

1. Break a piece of pliable clay (about the size of a baseball) into two equal halves and roll into balls. The equality of the clay balls is important, as they will form the two halves of the clay whistle body.

2. Push your thumb into the center of one of the clay balls to create a central depression.

3. Pinch the clay from step 2 to increase the central depression gently using the thumb and fingers. The result should look like half of a tennis ball.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the other clay ball attempting to make the two halves of the body as symmetrical as possible.

5. Roughen the edges of both clay halves with a cocktail stick, making the surface rough.

6. Use small amounts of slip (clay heavily watered down into a gooey paste) to connect the two halves before smoothing the outer shell. The body should be a smooth hollow clay ball.

7. Insert the end of a wooden Popsicle stick into the end of the clay ball to make a place to attach the whistle. Widen this hole to create a hole approximately an inch wide and half an inch thick.

Creating and attaching the mouthpiece

1. Flatten a comparable amount of clay into a roughly rectangular shape. This flat piece of clay should be about 1/8 of an inch in thickness and long enough to wrap around the stick several times.

2. Wrap the mouthpiece clay from step 9 around the Popsicle stick until it is slightly thicker than the hole created in step 7. Do not forget to smooth and soften the edges with thumb pressure and a little water.

3. Remove the Popsicle from the mouthpiece being careful not to squeeze the clay too tight.

4. Position the mouthpiece into the hole of the body in such a way that half the space is open. Angle the mouthpiece in and flat against the body but so that a small hole or gap still exists to allow for the flow of air.

5. Test the sound of the whistle by gently moving and sliding the mouthpiece to see what position produces the best sound. The loudest sound is always best.

6. Smooth the mouthpiece into the whistle body using thumb pressure and a little water.

7. Allow the whistle to dry before painting or glazing. Air dry clay is best as it is quick and cheap.

Tips & Warnings

• Cover clay with a wet cloth or plastic when not using to prevent drying.