I’m pleased to announce a new flute series that I call Cloud Chaser™ flutes. Prior to getting into the details of what these are, I want to address a couple of things.
Before contacting me about these flutes, please take note of the following: these flutes cannot be custom ordered. Literally no two of them are the same because they feature organic designs and/or improvised ornamentation. So I do not customize them upon request for keys, scales, ergonomic variations, wood type or color/design requests. Quite simply, I make what I make, so no requests please (I know it’s tempting!). I’ll try to keep a good selection in stock.
These flutes are 100% human made using wood. There is no computer design, 3D printing, AI or machine automation involved in any way whatsoever. The decorative painting featured on many of them is done by me using a combination of woodworking technique and a paint brush—nothing more. In the past I used some CNC equipment in my shop but I have since dismantled it and have returned to more conventional, old-school woodworking methods (you can read about this in my blog on the subject). These instruments are individually crafted by a human being for other human beings, infused with intention and a love of the craft. Coloration comes from an 18th century all-natural paint recipe that I tint with non-toxic mineral pigments (the only exception are metallic colors that are ordinary acrylic paint).
So what makes these flutes special? Unlike many of the flutes that I make, these are not just contemporary versions of a traditional folk flutes of one kind or another. With some of my flutes I blur the boundaries between two different traditions in order to make something unusual, with these new flutes I’d be hard-pressed to locate those boundaries.
Instead they are an evolution that has grown out of all of my past flute making experience. And while they partake of various well known design elements, they transcend them as well.
Why Cloud Chaser™? There was a moment I experienced when playing an experimental flute that ended up being the inspiration for this new line. For many years I’ve been experimenting with what is called Aspect Ratio (AR) in flute design. The Aspect Ratio is the relationship between the length of the flute bore and its diameter. Long, narrow bores impart a different timbre than a wider, shorter bore. Timbre is what allows our ear to identify different instruments, and when working with woodwinds, manipulating the AR, and thus the timbre, creates noticeable differences in character and response. I tend to like flutes with a higher AR because I like the harmonics that are created.
So the experimental flute had an above average AR—higher than most styles of flutes— and this imparted a rich harmonic profile, and I spent some time playing meditatively and sort of drifting. There was an ethereal quality to it and at the same time I felt as if I were in pursuit of something—soaring up into the higher registers. Like chasing clouds, in fact. It was a whimsical moment, but it did provide me with a nice name that captures some aspects of what I’m trying to achieve with these flutes.
Another feature that sets these apart from the other types of flutes that I make is the mouthpiece design, which to my knowledge is a novel innovation (I have not seen or heard of anything like it before). This design has evolved over this last year, starting as one thing and then continuing to transform along the way. Last Summer (2025) I was paid a visit by Connor Keene (you might know him from his excellent videos on the xiao and Quimera that can be found elsewhere on my web site). We were in my workshop admiring a new flute from Winson Liao (an amazing Taiwanese xiao maker) and we were noticing the departure that Winson had made from traditional xiao mouthpieces, having blended a couple of different styles to make a fusion. He called this hybrid design a “song xiao”. But Winson was using this style of notch on one of his tapered bore nan xiao (or Southern style xiao). Connor was curious to experience this concept on a bei xiao (Northern style xiao) so I made one for us to tinker with. It yielded some very interesting results that showed promise, but we didn’t get to try more iterations on that visit.
After Connor left, I started further experiments with this idea, varying the size of the flute bores and notch parameters and getting notable results. At that point, I decided to mix these experiments with some others that I had been doing for years. I had done a lot of exploration of a design idea introduced by shakuhachi maker and researcher Nelson Zink, who had adapted elements of aircraft wing design (specifically something called a Kline-Fogelman air foil) for his shakuhachi mouthpieces. I had been using this same idea with xiao flutes and shakuhachi starting a few years ago (as did another shakuhachi company in Japan). Then came a conversation with my long time friend and collaborator Jon Walpole, touching on the subject of turbulence and how it interacts with the outer surface of the flute, and that sent me even farther down the rabbit hole! This inspired me to take the idea of the Kline-Fogelman air foil and expand upon it in a way that I had not seen attempted.
All of this mixing of design elements finally gelled, and the resulting mouthpiece worked so well with these new higher AR flute designs that it became a perfect marriage. I wanted a flute with a special character and superior response, and I believe the Cloud Chaser is that flute. It offers a broad tonal palette along with a superior dynamic range.
As for scales and keys, I’m offering some simple five hole pentatonic scales (major and minor) as well as some variations, including eight-hole xiao scales and a few others. Because of the higher AR on many of them, it would be challenging to reach some of the lower keys so I’m initially working with more mid-range keys.
The inspiration for the painting comes directly from the work of flute maker and artist MIchael Graham Allen. I encourage the reading of my blog on this subject.