New Wind Vessels from Ron Kendall

I had the opportunity to play a song dedicated to Hawk Littlejohn with Mary Youngblood at the Winter Gathering hosted by the Loping Wolf clan this last weekend. For the song, I played drum while Mary played my Woodsong Flute. I ended the song by the playing the “sound of the wind” from the wind vessel that I bought from Rod Kendall at the INAFA convention this last fall. Mary was impressed with the wind vessel and asked where she could get one, so I wrote Rod an email earlier this week to ask him about his website (still under construction…). Dan Ricketts also mentioned at the winter gathering that he was buying a newer style wind vessel from Rod, so I asked Rod about that as well.

Below is a picture of the style of wind vessel which I own. It’s about 2.5 inches in diameter and about 5 inches long:

The newer style of wind vessel now includes a rotating “resonating chamber” which makes the instrument capable of changing the sound it produces, by rotating the lever. Here are a couple of pictures which Rod sent me to help you understand how this works:

Notice the little copper lever on the side this is used to rotate the ball-like inner resonating chamber. According to Rod:

“The decorative surface treatment is called saggar firing, kelp, little bits of copper wire, and oyster shells are placed around the bisqued piece and fired in a gas kiln. The random fuming gives each piece a patina that reminds me of an ancient artifact! They are all priced individually and range from $85 for a basic model to $150 for the deluxe professional model. The professional series is brand new and consists of an adjustable resonator, some are clay and some are hand made copper. You turn a little lever and it turns the hollow ball inside. This gives you a wider range of wind sounds, all the way from raging storm to a whistling breeze!

To contact Rod Kendall: rodkendall AT msn DOT com