In 1998 we were in a craft gallery run by our friend Kathy Leone - Eagle Mother - a Micmac from Princeton, Massachusetts. We were buying some of Kathy's beautiful silver work but I also came across a CD of Robert Tree Cody playing his red cedar flute. Hearing that music marked the start of a journey that is still under way. Poem 'journeys'.
A few months later I bought my first flute - made from river cane - from Jim Gilliland, a Cherokee from North Alabama. Now I play native american flutes and native american-style flutes (made by non-indians), and make native american-style flutes in a variety of woods - eastern and western red cedar, eastern yellow cedar, Port Orford cedar, American black walnut, sequoia. Each is unique as they are made individually, entirely by hand, and take twenty hours or more to complete. I also make leather flute cases.
