I have previously started collecting and preparing gumnuts with my son for making a seek pod shaker but we left all the previous gumnuts because they were too small. On my recent trip to the local bushes, I managed to find much larger ones which are giving a nicer sound when bumped into one another.
I've collected couple of handfuls from the ground and made sure to put back those that were already occupied by insects or spider cocoons. First thing I needed to do is empty and clean the inside of each gumnut to create a larger hollow space for more resonance. For that I used a milling bit on my drill press and carefully break the inside walls that separate the compartment of the pods.
After all the pods were cleaned on the inside, I proceeded with cutting the stem off them and sand the top of the nut to make it easier to drill a hole through it.
My son then used his battery powered rotary tool to drill a little hole at the back of each pod. He's been using manual wood working tools for quite a while now and this is his first power tool. It is safer than a corded rotary tool since the battery power is quite low.
The large gumnuts were much easier to drill through than the smaller ones. Not only they were easier to hold on to thanks to their size but their wall is also less dense and required less pressure on the drill.
Here is a first prototype of our gumnut shaker. It has a nice sound but I believe we can improve on it by making adding more gumnuts to it and make each strand a but longer maybe 6 pods per strand instead of just 4.
Here is a sample sound from the new instrument:
Serves as a musical instrument and a nice toy for teasing cats! 😁
hahaha, it's shame I don't have cats :-D
My son is still too young, but I have already made a list of devices that I will teach him to make from improvised means. However, they are not as beautiful as your instrument. Rather, they are even dangerous (sawing, exploding, shooting)... my wife doesn't know about it yet :D
lol
Be careful
Man who has never seen forest fruits and useful to play with ;))
hehe
Very nice work 👍🏾 thanks for sharing
It looks so strange. I have never seen it. Thanks for your sharing.
What a beautiful project! I might try and get my siblings to make these with me!! Thanks for sharing :)
It sounded exactly how I thought it would sound! Awesome - what a great thing to do.
It was fun and quality time spent together
Thanks for the vote @quochuy! This is such a beautiful post - a cool experience you created. I LOVE this! You are the most amazing father for doing all these things with him and teaching him these concepts and art and how to use his hands and appreciate nature and thing through a design.
I'm hopping to instill in him some good values
I am happy to see it! Boys need good values. And discipline. And creativity. And self-worth. And building things with dad is a great way to develop that.
Hmm.. when you said gumnut shaker I imagined that you would collects the seeds and make a shaker out of it from bamboo.
We have what the call rain maker seeds filled inside bamboo canes which sound like falling rain, when tilted .
These are lovely as well. I like the color and the shape of the nuts.
I have a bamboo shaker too, it’s a short one with rice inside.
Okay, I have one which is like 3 feet long. Sounds so soft and beautiful like the falling rain. I really don't know what is inside that though.
This is my first time of seeing it. This is a nice post thanks for sharing
Wow it looks like it cost a lot of work..So proud of both of you...Well done
que genial ! gracias por compartir !
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Nice hard work put into it. Moments like this are beautiful and priceless
wow... its a amazing creation very well-done both of you
Amazingly wonderful, keep it up
espectacular, los niños tienen mucho potencial, que bueno por el suyo. bendiciones...
This sounds really cool . I bet it is a great way to connect with nature and helping the young man, your son initiated into the world of DIY and I guess music as well
Good luck to the young man.
very creative and amazing
Have fun!