Dennis
20-06-2011, 09:50 AM
Our class project this term was to make a piece of jewellery on the theme ’Sweetness and Light’.
As a boy I could never pass an ash hedge without cutting a stout twig just below the node and turning it into a whistle. With my trusted pen knife I would whittle the mouth piece, make a notch and then, this was the best part, lick it and suck it until the bark softened. Then I would tap the bark all over until it loosened , cut through it at the base and gently remove it. When the stem was hollowed sufficiently, the bark could be replaced and there was a whistle.
With this in mind I decided to make a silver pendant of a similar design using some 5.50 o/s diameter tubing. The notch was easy and before shaping the mouthpiece it was closed with a well-fitting silver wire that had a flat filed on the top to admit air. The far end was detailed with a shallow anticlastic ring.
So far so good, but I could not get any sound out of it with the far end either closed or left open . Before giving up I experimented by narrowing the end with more tubing and finally by inserting a small screwdriver. This at last produced quite a shrill note, so I replaced it with a short wedge-shaped wire, soldered in. The twisted wire ring was added for decoration.
Whether this has fulfilled the remit of Sweetness and Light, I can’t be sure, But it does have a high pitched silvery tone, rather like a dog whistle, so when completing the necklace I raided my scrap pot to carve a little dog for the end of the extension chain . Whistle pendants might be all the rage this year.
As a boy I could never pass an ash hedge without cutting a stout twig just below the node and turning it into a whistle. With my trusted pen knife I would whittle the mouth piece, make a notch and then, this was the best part, lick it and suck it until the bark softened. Then I would tap the bark all over until it loosened , cut through it at the base and gently remove it. When the stem was hollowed sufficiently, the bark could be replaced and there was a whistle.
With this in mind I decided to make a silver pendant of a similar design using some 5.50 o/s diameter tubing. The notch was easy and before shaping the mouthpiece it was closed with a well-fitting silver wire that had a flat filed on the top to admit air. The far end was detailed with a shallow anticlastic ring.
So far so good, but I could not get any sound out of it with the far end either closed or left open . Before giving up I experimented by narrowing the end with more tubing and finally by inserting a small screwdriver. This at last produced quite a shrill note, so I replaced it with a short wedge-shaped wire, soldered in. The twisted wire ring was added for decoration.
Whether this has fulfilled the remit of Sweetness and Light, I can’t be sure, But it does have a high pitched silvery tone, rather like a dog whistle, so when completing the necklace I raided my scrap pot to carve a little dog for the end of the extension chain . Whistle pendants might be all the rage this year.