Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Oh my. Well, I don't think I'll be burying anything in feces, but I do appreciate the link to that thread. I've been going over it these past few minutes and taking some notes.

Of course, you're right. I should focus more on the mechanics than aesthetics. I suppose it came from my looking around at other people's flutes and thinking, "wow, that looks really nice. I wonder how hard that would be to do?" More of a passing interest at this point, but a curiosity nonetheless. And I do still practice regularly with scrap bamboo, though I haven't yet tried to make a flute from PVC. I'll have to give it a go (or two or three) before I make any attempt on my little project piece.

Has anybody tried soaking the bamboo in tea?

Walnut dyes many things very nicely, and it is probably the only really lightfast natural dye.  I haven't tried it on bamboo, but it's great on (tree) wood and fabric, not to mention your hands.  Right now the walnuts are just coming due where I am (southern Ontario, Canada).  If you can find some in your area, search on the net for pictures if you need to, just pick some off the tree or off the ground.  If you break open a fresh green hull it will be light green on the inside and then brown with exposure to the air.  I've just rubbed this freshly on maple and it turns it a glowing darker color - keep layering over to darken more and more, although I don't know if you'd get a dark brown - but maybe. 

Incidentally, walnuts are anti-carcinogenic and smell lemony.  Kids playing with the hulls prevents leukaemia, some leaves (at the time of the walnuts being ripe) rubbed on the inside of upper arms prevents breast cancer.  And the colour stained on your skin, some people my recognize the colour and engage you in conversation about walnut harvesting.    The info courtesey of Diana Beresford-Kroeger.

Perry, you could re-dye your shirt by boiling some hulls in a pot, letting it sit for say a few minutes or 24 hours - more hulls and more time means more colour, but it depends on the fabric too.  The colour will be less red than tea.  A little salt in the water helps, but no mortar is needed.  I recently wanted to take the brightness off a bright green shirt and forgot to stir it and it created this lovely tye-dye-ish dappled leaf pattern from some of the fabric being above the water.  Might be better to do it outside or with an open window just 'coz what's healthy in it's original state might break down and become something different when heated and airborn, but I haven't heard anything specifically about walnut.  When you're done, rinse like crazy.

If you put hulls in water like this but make it really dense and thick, it makes an ink, which might be useful for painting some darker colour on the bamboo, but I haven't tried that.

Although I'm not about to try it myself, there are probably ways of getting the colour into oil, maybe by "frying", but obviously, there would be safety considerations.  A project to be done on the driveway I'm sure.

COMPOSTER WARNING: never put walnut hulls in the composter.  You will notice that little grows under walnut trees and it's because the hulls, while healthy to people are unhealthy to plants, and nothing will grow in your garden if it has anything walnut in it.

Also, you can eat the walnuts if you dry them, of course, but I'm trying not to go too far off topic so you can look that up elsewhere.

Hi Owloon,

Owloon wrote:

Perry, you could re-dye your shirt by boiling some hulls in a pot, letting it sit for say a few minutes or 24 hours - more hulls and more time means more colour, but it depends on the fabric too.  The colour will be less red than tea.  A little salt in the water helps, but no mortar is needed.  I recently wanted to take the brightness off a bright green shirt and forgot to stir it and it created this lovely tye-dye-ish dappled leaf pattern from some of the fabric being above the water.  Might be better to do it outside or with an open window just 'coz what's healthy in it's original state might break down and become something different when heated and airborn, but I haven't heard anything specifically about walnut.  When you're done, rinse like crazy.

Thanks for the tip! I no longer have the t-shirt. I tried the dying while on tour in Italy and lost the shirt in Macedonia. But, I'll keep the nut in mind the next time I need to dye something. Is it commercially available as a dye or does one need to brew it.

Namaste, Perry

Owloon wrote:

Perry: Walnut hull powder available at:

http://www.hillcreekfiberstudio.com/

Or I could send you some myself if I can send plant matter across the border (I'm not sure).

I'm imagining, for colouring a shakuhachi, if maybe ripples of paper wet with walnut ink could create a natural-looking pattern.  Adding metals modifies the colour, like iron makes the walnut black-brown.  Maybe somehow this could be used to create variations in colour that run together or are layered.

More helpful info and how-to variations at:  http://home.onemain.com/~crowland/Pages/Walnut.html

Kim.

Thanks Kim! I'll give you a shout if when I try it. All the best, Perry

hEY ALL!
wHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO SAND OFF THE SKIN? I HEARD SOMETHING ABOUT STEEL WOOL?
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'VE SANDED ENOUGH OR GONE TOO FAR?

Thanks Ken,
I think it will help! I will have to practice on some cut pieces. The problem is knowing when to stop...isn't it? With just about every aspect of making a shakuhachi.