How to Make a Clay Whistle: A Beginner's Pottery Project

Sep 4, 2011
Amy Lynn Hess

Whistle Top - Amy Lynn Hess

Would you like to make a clay whistle in your first days as a potter? Making a clay whistle is a great pottery project for beginners.

Walking into a pottery studio as a beginner can be a bit intimidating. There's a lot to learn, from basic handbuilding and throwing techniques to more advanced firing and glazing concepts. However, do not be discouraged! A clay whistle project can be created in your first few days, even if just starting out.

The basic building techniques you should use and understand for this project are wiring off clay, wedging, pinching, paddling, and attaching pieces by scoring and applying slip.

Understanding How Whistles Make Sound

It's important, before beginning, to understand a few concepts about how whistles work, so you can sketch and plan your project.

This whistle works much like a flute. According to Mark Shepard on a Web page called An Intro to Flute Acoustics, "Nearly all musical instruments are made up of two basic elements: a generator, which gets the vibration going, and a resonator, which amplifies the vibration and modifies it to create the sound of the instrument." For this project, the "wedge," will be the generator, and the hollow form will be the resonator.

The player will blow air that passes through a canal until it hits a wedge of clay that splits the air, causing the sound. The air will alternate between escaping out of the whistle and being forced into the whistle, which will cause vibrations in the form.

Creating the Resonator of the Whistle; the Hollow Form

Wire off 1 - 2 pounds of clay.
Wedge your clay and cut it into 1/2 pound squares.
Form balls of clay.
Wrap all but one of the balls in plastic (to keep them moist), and use the last one to create a pinch pot the size of your hand.
Smooth and pinch the pot until the walls are 1/4 inch thick.
Close your form by applying slip to scored edges. The closed edge is the bottom of the form.
Lightly tap or paddle the top of the form in order to create a flat surface for the whistle's hole.

Creating the Whistle's Mouthpiece.

Use about an inch of clay to create a smooth cube or solid cylinder.
Poke a thin, rectangular hole in the mouthpiece, like a shortened slit for a piggybank.
Set the mouthpiece aside.

Attaching the Mouthpiece to the Whistle

Insert a fettling knife into the hollow form just under the top of the "lid."
The top surface of the knife should touch the bottom surface of the hollow form's "lid."
Remove the knife.
Create a slot at the knife's opening that's the same size as the slot in the mouthpiece.
Insert the knife into the mouthpiece, then into the slot in the hollow form.
Push the knife about 1/2 inch back into the hollow form so it just touches the lid of the hollow form, as before.
The knife now sits where air will later pass through the whistle.

Creating the Generator; the Whistle's Hole and Wedge

Use a needle tool to cut out a small square of clay where the air hole meets the hollow inside of the form.
Create 90 degree angles straight down into the form. You will be able to see the fettling knife's top surface.
After the square is cleanly cut and you can see the surface of the fettling knife, create a 45 degree "slide" from the back edge of the square hole up towards the back of the hollow form. It's at this point the air will be split to make a sound. Use the top of the knife as a guide.
Be sure to use the needle tool to clean any clay out from below the edge of the wedge that sits below the level of the air canal.
Practice blowing softly into the mouthpiece and adjusting the angles until the "wedge" and air canal are aligned and the whistle makes the desired sound.

Practice with all of the 1/2 pound balls of clay you've wedged. When the basic forms and whistles are complete and working (and you've cleaned the clay from around your mouth), let the clay become leather hard, then attach and decorate before bisque firing your whistle!