2010 Group Project
Pictures of the group project from 2009

Musical Bows
This year we will be doing shakers (rattles). But we are not doing just any rattle. We will be doing a special native Hawaiian style rattle called an uli'uli. The uli'uli is very decorative and is used to accompany traditional Hawaiian dance. You may be able to find some examples of this on YouTube.

We are doing two different styles of uli'uli. The more modern style has a wooden handle and wooden disk like these:
As you can see one is decorated with just a plain red cloth over the disk. The other one is decorated with feathers. Both of these pictures are relatively plain. You can really let you imagination go wild on both the gourd and the disk.

The other style that we are doing is an older more traditional style. It uses a woven/basketry type of handle and disk.

There are some photographs and tutorials in both of the Widess and Summit books  'How to Make Hawaiian Musical Instruments' and 'Making Gourd Musical Instruments' (p26).

Here is a challenge to all you folks who do weaving, basketry, embellishments, or natural materials etc.. Think you are pretty good, huh? Try making the woven style uli'uli! I think you will find it both challenging and rewarding.

We realize that sometimes with all the other things going on at the Gathering that it can be difficult to find the time to work on the Instrument Project. So again this year we have some partially completed instruments that we will send to you for you to work on at home. Just click here to send me a note Batt Battstone and I will put one in the mail for you.  Below you can see photos and descriptions the ones that I have ready now. If you have something else in mind or you would like a pair of something just let me know and I'll see what I can do.  And we will have several for you to work on at the Gathering.

The instruments that we complete will go into the Auction Saturday night.

I think these rattles have a lot of potential for your artistic talents. And we will try to make it a fun experience!

But remember; we need YOU to make it happen
Uli'uli 1
Medium sized gourd with the traditional woven handle and disk. Handle and disk are made of basket reed and yucca fiber. As this was my first attempt at any type of weaving and I was using very old yucca leaves the weaving turned out very rough and .....really ugly! This one will test your decorating skills. Turn this ugly duckling into something nice!
(2 views of the same gourd)
Uli'uli #2
Small gourd. Wooden handle and disk.

Uli'uli #3
Medium gourd.Wooden handle and disk. Rafta support bundles. Handle wrapped with sissal cord.
Uli'uli #4
Cannonball gourds. Wooden handle and disk. The only matching pair I have right now.
Uli'uli #5
Small-medium sized gourd. Handle is basket reed and broomstraw wrapped with sissal cord. This one is ready for you to weave the disk.