Ocarina of Time

Took me long enough to finally post this! Here is the ocarina I made for my 12th grade AP Physics class in 2002-03. The physics project part of it was how to accurately tune the instrument, which I did decently for do-re-mi-fa-so and less well for the higher notes. The shape and decoration were, of course, inspired by the now-classic Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The art teacher who taught ceramics, under whom I was taking an independent study at the time, was very impressed with the way it came out. I still can't believe I got it to work with relative ease.

I tried to make this ocarina look as much like Link's Ocarina of Time as I could, not only in decoration but also in size and shape. I should have put a ruler or something into the picture to show scale ... oh well. It's about 8 inches long or so, though, with somewhat thick walls of about half an inch, give or take a bit. The tone of this instrument is much deeper than in the video game due mainly to its size.

White clay with blue and yellow slip for decoration, covered with a clear glaze. And before you ask, no this is NOT for sale!