Meet Lori Bletsch | Ocarina Maker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lori Bletsch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lori, let’s start by talking about what inspires you?
I make handcrafted ceramic ocarinas, clay whistles that can play a full musical scale. I sell them at Medieval and Renaissance festivals in a few different states.

I love what I do because I feel like I’m putting joy out into the world. One of my favorite things is to watch people’s faces light up when they walk past the ocarina booth at a festival. At first glance, my ocarinas look more like rocks than any kind of musical instrument, so when we play one, people are usually so surprised that they can’t help but smile. The reaction is similar when we invite people to try one, and they discover how easy it is to play. It inspires me to keep improving my skills as an ocarina maker so that the magical, sparkling tone of the instrument is as effortless as possible.

If my business journey were a fictional story, its biggest theme would probably be the choice between joy and fear. It started way back in 1999 when I met my late husband at a Celtic music festival where he was playing his ocarinas. It was love at first sight, and that moment changed the entire trajectory of my life. Less than a month later, I dropped out of college, packed up my apartment, and ran off to the Renaissance festivals to help him make ocarinas. It definitely wasn’t a conventional, rational decision, but I don’t regret following my heart over my head.

Over the years I’ve noticed that I’m much more successful when I’m inspired by joy than I am when I focus on fear. When I worry that my ocarinas won’t be as good as the ones made by someone else, it’s almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I make mistakes, try too hard to correct them, and get so far into my head that I can barely make an ocarina at all. However, when I just focus on doing my own thing, letting inspiration take me where it will, I end up surprising myself with the things I can create.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Ocarinas have been made and played all over the world for thousands of years, so there is quite a bit of variety in their shape, their tuning, and the technology used to make them. They run the gamut from mass produced, plastic whistles with a few finger holes, to exquisitely crafted, concert-quality musical instruments. Many modern ceramic ocarinas are made using molds to standardize the size and key of the instrument, and most are decorated with glaze.

As a Renaissance festival artisan, my ocarinas tend to be inspired by historical versions of the instrument that were made using more primitive methods of construction. My ocarinas are all individually molded by hand and carved with a few simple wooden tools. Though I use a small, electric kiln for safety and environmental reasons, the smoke-fired finish on my ocarinas is similar to that of ceramic fired in a pit dug in the ground. I take them out of the kiln while they are still glowing red hot, and I submerge them into dried grasses or herbs, a process that burns the color of the smoke permanently into the ceramic. Since I’m not relying on glaze for decoration, I carve designs into the surface of the clay.

I’ve been carving designs into ocarinas for a little over twenty years, much longer than I’ve been making the instrument itself. This was my job back when I was helping my late husband, Larry “Sir Lawrence” Bletsch, make his ocarinas. I started out carving wobbly stick figures, but over the years I’ve developed an art style heavily inspired by Celtic and Norse medieval design.

My husband taught me how to make my first ocarina. He had served an apprenticeship with master ocarina maker Stephen Roush at the Michigan Renaissance Festival during the late 80s to early 90s. They made five and six hole pendant ocarinas, so that was the style I began making when I first started my business. It is important to me to preserve and pass on the knowledge of how to make this folk instrument. It was passed down to me orally and through hands-on experience, and I’m thrilled that my son, Isaac, wants to be a part of this tradition. He is learning through the same method as we travel from show to show.

The majority of my ocarinas are tuned to the modern Western scale. I still make pendant ocarinas, but I now make five and eight hole ocarinas in the traditional Italian shape as well. All of them play a full octave plus one extra note.

I am also very interested in ancient versions of the instrument that are tuned to different intervals. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been researching native European ocarinas made before the 16th century. I have so much fun trying to reconstruct the sound and appearance of these instruments. While this is a personal project that I started out of pure interest, it inspired me to add yet another style of ocarina to the ones I make for the festivals. The Mother Earth Ocarina is tuned to a theoretical version of a Neolithic European pentatonic scale. It is so soothing to play that I’ve been using one as a tool for meditation and mindfulness.

This kind of freedom to follow my creativity is one of my favorite things about what I do. I am incredibly grateful to be able to make a living doing what I love and sharing it with others.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a difficult question for me to answer. My son and I travel from festival to festival during the majority of the year, so we only call the Dallas/Ft. Worth area home for a few weeks during the Scarborough Renaissance Festival. Unfortunately, we’re usually so busy while the fair is open that we barely even have time to visit with our family and friends in the area. In fact, last year we only got to see those people because we invited them to the fair. At least it’s a place that qualifies as fun, interesting, and exciting! The Scarborough Renaissance Festival is a gorgeous place. There are so many creative entertainers and artisans there, and it’s definitely fun to see all the people in costume. It’s open in April through May, which is the height of bluebonnet season. If I was taking a friend to visit the festival, I’d want to pull over on one of the back roads on the way to take pictures in the middle of a field of bluebonnets.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to send a shoutout to my son, Isaac, who is one of the coolest people I know. I’m really glad he wants to be a part of the family business for a while. It’s nice to have trustworthy help, and it’s just really fun to spend time with him! He’s intelligent and creative, and I’m in awe of his comedic timing.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without my late husband, Larry “Sir Lawrence” Bletsch. He was an extraordinary man who inspired so many people with his wisdom and his music. He taught me that I could choose happiness no matter the circumstances. I will always be grateful for his unconditional love and support. He always believed in my creative abilities, and I hope that I’m making him proud.

I also want to thank my Aunt Becky for being consistently awesome. She’s always willing to lend an ear when I need it, and I just really love her.

My friends Haley, Alex, and Monica who have been there for me through both good and bad times.

Finally, I’d like to thank all of the people who have been a part of my ocarina journey. Friends, family, and customers–your support and encouragement means so much. Thank you for helping me to follow my dreams.

Website: https://www.spiritsongocarinas.com/

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