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How to Make a Clay Ocarina: Step-by-Step DIY Guide

Making a clay ocarina with your own hands is one of the most rewarding craft and musical projects you can undertake. With a handful of pottery clay, two popsicle sticks, and a small cutting blade, you can build an ancient acoustic vessel flute that produces clear, resonant music.

What you need

You don't need an industrial ceramic studio to build an ocarina. A small kitchen workspace or craft table is plenty:

• Pottery clay or self-hardening / air-dry clay: Stoneware, earthenware or terracotta clay works best if you have access to a kiln. If not, high-grade polymer or air-dry clay can also produce a functional instrument.
• Two popsicle sticks (craft craft sticks): These create the exact rectangular windway slot and guide the angle of the cutting edge.
• A small craft knife or fettling blade: For slicing clay cleanly without dragging.
• A small round modeling tool or drinking straws: For piercing and tuning finger toneholes.
• A small cup of water and a sponge: For scoring clay and smoothing surfaces.

Step 1: Forming the hollow chamber (Pinch-pot method)

The sound of an ocarina depends on the resonance of its internal hollow volume. The simplest and most reliable way to make a hollow vessel is with two pinch pots:

1. Take a lump of clay about the size of a lemon and divide it into two equal halves.
2. Roll each half into a smooth round ball. Press your thumb into the center of each ball and pinch the walls evenly until you have two matching small bowls (pinch pots), about 5 to 6 mm thick.
3. Cross-hatch (score) the rims of both bowls with a toothpick or fork, moisten with a drop of water (slip), and firmly press the two bowls together.
4. Blend the seam with your thumb until the seam disappears completely. You now have a hollow, airtight clay egg. Gently tap it on a table to shape it into the classic sweet-potato or tear-drop pendant silhouette.

Step 2: Adding the mouthpiece & cutting the windway

The heart of any flute or ocarina is the fipple (the airway and splitting labium edge). This is where air pressure transforms into musical sound.

1. Attach a small rectangular block of clay to one end of the hollow vessel to form the mouthpiece stem. Blend the joint smoothly into the body.
2. Insert a flat wooden craft stick horizontally through the mouthpiece until it just enters the main chamber. This creates a flat, smooth windway duct. Keep the stick in place.
3. From the outside of the ocarina, cut a small square window (about 5 mm by 5 mm) right at the end of the mouthpiece where it meets the main body, exposing the tip of the stick inside. Remove that small clay square.

Step 3: Carving the labium (The sound-maker)

This is the most critical step. The air exiting the windway must strike a razor-sharp wedge (the labium) at an angle of roughly 45 degrees:

1. Using your craft knife at an angle from the outside, shave the far edge of the square window into a crisp, sharp 45° wedge pointing directly back toward the windway.
2. The sharp edge must align exactly with the center line of the air channel. Half the air should flow inside the ocarina, and half should spill outside.
3. Carefully remove the wooden stick and gently blow through the mouthpiece.
4. Listen: If your alignment and wedge edge are clean, you will immediately hear a clear, pure musical whistling tone! If it sounds airy or silent, re-insert the stick and carefully adjust the sharpness or alignment of the wedge until it sings effortlessly.

Step 4: Tuning and drilling tone holes

Because an ocarina is a Helmholtz resonator, its pitch does not depend on where holes are placed along a tube; instead, pitch is determined by the ratio of total open hole area to the chamber's interior volume. Any open hole raises the pitch!

1. Start with the lowest note: With all holes closed (only the sound window open), your ocarina sounds its fundamental keynote (often C or G depending on size).
2. First finger hole: Using a small straw or round tool, poke your first small hole on top for your right index finger. Blow the ocarina while covering and uncovering the hole—uncovering it raises the pitch by one step (e.g. from C to D).
3. Gradual enlargement: Making a hole larger raises the pitch; keeping it smaller raises the pitch less. Enlarge the hole gradually until the note is perfectly in tune.
4. Add remaining holes: For a 4-hole English pendant ocarina, add four holes of different sizes (two for the left hand, two for the right). This ingenious binary system allows 4 holes to play an entire 8-note octave scale!
5. For a 10-hole or 12-hole transverse ocarina, continue adding finger holes in sequence from right to left, checking each note against a piano tuner or pitch app.

Step 5: Drying, smoothing, and firing

• Smoothing: Once the clay is leather-hard (firm but not bone-dry), gently burnish the outside with the back of a metal spoon to give it a silky, smooth finish. Clear away any tiny clay crumbs from inside the windway and toneholes.
• Drying: Let the ocarina dry slowly at room temperature away from direct sunlight for 3 to 7 days until it is bone-dry.
• Firing: If using ceramic clay, bisque-fire the instrument in a pottery kiln to Cone 04–06 (~1000°C / 1830°F). You can glaze the outside for color, but keep glaze out of the windway and labium window so the acoustic geometry remains pristine.
• Air-dry clay: If using air-dry clay, allow it to cure thoroughly, then seal the exterior with non-toxic acrylic varnish.

Play your new ocarina!

Once your clay ocarina is cured or fired, you can play real melodies on it! Head over to Potato Flute's interactive lessons and song library to test your handmade instrument with real songs.

More from the ocarina library

• A History of the Ocarina: From Ancient Vessel Flutes to BudrioExplore the fascinating 12,000-year history of the ocarina: Neolithic flutes like the Runik ocarina, Chinese xun, Mesoamerican clay instruments, and Giuseppe Donati's 1853 invention in Italy.
• Classical Musicians and Composers Who Embraced the OcarinaDiscover the classical repertoire of the ocarina: from the 19th-century Budrio septets to 20th-century avant-garde masterpieces by György Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki.
• How an Ocarina Works: The Acoustics of Helmholtz ResonanceUnderstand the physics of the ocarina: why hole position doesn't matter, how chamber volume sets pitch, and why breath pressure controls intonation.

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Sources & reading

• Wikipedia: Ocarina history, acoustic classification, and construction
• Wikimedia Commons: Ocarina windway and acoustic cross-section
• Pure Ocarinas: Acoustic principles of vessel flutes