This E minor flute is 23-9/16th inches in length, with a 1”x 1-1/4” bore diameter, and it is gorgeous. The mouthpiece is formed from subtly hand tinted California buckeye burl wood, between layers of Malaysian black palm, and capped with this Hawaiian Koa. The fetish block is cut from Southeast Asian amboyna burl, bonded to more amboyna and Oklahoma red cedar. It is carved to represent a mountain lion, a very powerful fetish, but looks oddly like my cat Cisco.
Inlay to this flute starts at the mouthpiece, with a 5x7mm, 70 million year old Alberta Bear Paw Ammolite, flanked by two 4.3mm domed turquoise cabs. The block ties run through the flute, which allowed me to inlay the sides of the compression chamber. Specifically, each side includes 25mm disks of amboyna burl, accented with paua abalone, and 6mm black fresh water pearl. The sound chamber forward from the fetish starts with a 7ct. 13.6x11.3mm Australian yowah nut boulder opal, while the finger holes are accented with four 4.3mm abalone dots and a quartz capped 6.25x19.65mm abalone oval. Lastly, the fetish is accented with a 6mm Tibetan turquoise round cab, set to the crown, and two 2.2mm faceted African champagne diamonds, set as eyes.
The flute is finished off with a removable wrap of South Dakota prairie rattlesnake skin.
Tuning was done at 71.2 degrees F, at 43% humidity.