 ONE VISION Day and night, no difference. The sun *is* the moon: An amalgam. Their gold and silver melt together. This is the season when the dead branch and the green branch are the same branch. Nightmares fill with light like a holiday. Humans and angels speak one language. The elusive ones finally meet. Good and evil, dead and alive, everything blooms from one natural stem. You know this already, I'll stop. Any direction you turn it's one vision. -- Rumi -- (trans. Coleman Barks) Green Branches
Many of
the tree branches that I'll use to make a flute, I will have gathered
green, some of them from the branch pile at a wonderful nature
preserve, Descanso
Gardens. There, after being trimmed by the gardeners or newly
wind
felled, they await the steel jaws of the wood chipper, to be mulched
into
soil again under the leaves of other trees. Life is a circle in
that way for all us. In those green branches, though, the
life force of the tree is still present, still protecting the branch
from
those wood chippers of nature -- insects, the elements and
biodegration. This
is
when
I
like to gather a branch for a potential flute.
 In a green
branch, the
unique colors of the specific tree are still clear and bright and
the bark is still tight to the sapwood. The branch has not
cracked or checked on its surface or ends. Its
original
qualities
have
not yet been lost. Qualities
that
will
remain
after drying in a light bulb kiln, as long as the
branch is sealed properly.
Any
lichen
growing
on the branch can even be
preserved, as in the English Walnut branch flute pictured to the
right.
By starting with a green branch the finished flute can still radiate
signs that the dryad, spirit,
or life
force of a tree is inhabiting it, though now the leaves of that branch
be music. Once it
loses its life force and has been given back to the
ground, other "spirits" will start to inhabit the branch. The
elements and the critters of biodegration are the good earth's way of
laying claim to it again. And that's ok, I've
made some wonderful flutes, and will continue to do so on occasion,
from branches that fell from the
tree, inlaying the worm holes
or surface checks with colorful stone. If the branch has been
dead long enough, I
won't have to worry
about drying it, since the elements will have done it for
me. The
intent here is not to state that working with a green branch is
a better way of making a flute. Just another way,
with its own
advantages.
What I show in the following pages are the steps I take in turning a green branch into a dry flute blank, ready to be worked as a native style flute after it's dried in the hot box. How I make the flute after that is for another article. For those interested, there are several good resources that teach how to make a Native American style flute, available in book or DVD format, that can be found on the web. And here are a few very good online forums where you can ask for advice or research the archives for every stage of the native flute making process: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/basic_naf_making/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nativeflutewoodworking/ http://forums.fluteportal.com/index.php?showforum=21 I owe much in gratitude to the many flute makers who've been willing to share their knowledge. Also to the experience of wood turners and chair makers who work with green wood. Hopefully the information in these few pages is a way of giving something back. ~ Jon
Sherman
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