Twitter: Making a bird call from wood scrap

 

Yeah, these days when we want to trick wild birds to chirp near us, we can open an app to play bird song and turn up the volume of our cell phone. A real bird would start singing a song to quell the intruder (from the net space) into its territory. That’s that. Though, there is more organic approach to the matter. We can make a bird call from wood scrap. The other day, GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods had a workshop to craft the tool from scrap from their forestry activities. The design of bird call this time was done by Mr. Harada Akatsuki. It was fun!

Blueprint

The artists for the GROUP prepared the mini logs from various thinned branches of wood. The size of a wood is small enough to be held by a human palm. We try several mini logs to find one with which we feel right in our hands. To make a sound from a scrap, Mr. Harada combined two mini-logs. The smaller part is defined as a tail of a bird.

We chose one of these.

My choice

The bigger “body” wood has 3 holes that were prepared by the artists beforehand. Into the center, we screw in a screw. This is the beak of a bird. The other two holes are eyes. We paint this surface of wood with color pencils and crayons. It is the face of a bird.

Screw in.

Who are you?

I am …

a varied tit!
Ishiyama-san for the GROUP told me
nothing in nature is in a simple color.
For the face of varied tit,
the brown part is a mixture of blue,
light brown and dark brown.

Next, screw in a tale of the bird. As we make the tool sing by turning this tail, we should stop screwing the screw just at the right point. For my call, I stopped the screw here as in the below photo.

After fixing the smaller scrap to the main part of the call, we file this “tale” to create 3-4 grooves around the rim in order to make holds for playing the tool.

Filing

To finish the work, we spray pastel fixative to stop the painted colors from being wiped away.

Done! My bird caller.

To make a bird song, we turn the “tale.” There is just a right point for each bird caller to sing a song. I tried several turns to find the point. Finding the sweet spot itself was enjoyable conversation with a scrap. Interestingly, the voice differs according to

1. The diameter and the length of a scrap,

2. The variety of wood. Some say cherry trees make the best voice. Others claim sounds of oaks are better. 

3. Probably, the size of a screw also matters.

In forests, sometimes real birds are tricked, and the other occasions the birds must have thought this human fool tried to con them in a supposed to be quiet forest. A caution. Too many bird callers, whether it is from your cell phone or wood scrap, could harm wild birds’ breeding behavior, and give too much stress from a mistaken turf war. Please be modest and OK with just a little bit of fun with birds. 😉

If you have any questions about Yokohama’s Green Tax and Green Up Plan, please make a contact with

Strategic Planning Division, Green Environment Bureau, City of Yokohama
横浜市みどり環境局戦略企画課

Phone: 045-671-2712
FAX: 045-550-4093 

Email: mk-kikaku@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Beyond Boring Daily Life: Making bamboo instruments with artists

 

Bamboo is a useful plant to make musical instruments. Its structure is a series of pipes separated by nodes. Breaking the walls of nodes will make one compartment of the pipe longer. Naturally, it becomes the material for designing wind instruments. The most famous example would be Japanese shakuhachi flute. Also, bamboo is easy to work with knife. We can cut and carve it to make not only winds, but percussion and even the bodies of strings.

A bamboo xylophone created by artists
for Forest Labo this year.

Ditto. A different version

Creating instruments for pros requires skills, of course, and it’s not within the scope of my blog. Instead, I tell you today my adventure to create an instrument for a complete novice like me. My teacher was artists from the Forest Labo. It’s a kind of percussion with guiro. Let me tell you how to. First, create a main body from bamboo. For any craft with bamboo trunks, we start by removing wax oil covering them by (1) drying it for about a month after felling, (2) then, boil it or scorch the surface with a handheld burner. The procedure removes water and oil from the trunk and makes the material more durable. The dirt on the surface of bamboo can be removed simultaneously when we wipe with dry towels the coming up oil over the material. After the treatment, dry the material completely. It takes about a month in Yokohama during autumn and winter. Here are the bamboo Forest Labo people prepared for us.

It’s roughly 25cm or so long, and 5cm inner diameter. To decorate it later, it would be better to cut both sides of a node diagonally, keeping the wall inside. I think simple straight cut of bamboo trunk could be OK as well, but the sound will be different. Next, make 4 holes at the point 2cm from the center, or if you use a node one hole for each sideof a node. The position of holes are like

We can choose the points of the holes for 3, 6, 9, and 12 o’clock if we like. But again I guess the sound will be different. Anyway, these points are what the sculptors for Forest Lab chose. After you drill the holes at these points, make straight slits from the mouth of the pipe to the hole with a craft saw. I guess these gaps for a pipe of two compartments will make a more complicated sound compared with a sound from an unprocessed bamboo trunk.

Inside

We next make guiro. Mark 9 lines on a bamboo surface with a pen and make shallow cuts on the lines with a rasp. Depending on the length of the bamboo, number of cuts would be larger or smaller.

Marked

Start making guiro

Done!

For a final touch, we decorate the instrument with colorful strings of jute. First stick a double-sided tape around the node of the bamboo. Peel the surface side of the tape and paste 4 decoration strings on the tape. The main body of the instrument is completed. It’s easy.

Taping the bamboo

Decoration

Done

Then, we make a drumstick. Cut a joint mat of foam flooring in the form of below photo, and fasten a wood square stick, 26cm long and 1cm wide of its side, with relatively strong wire. We have to make it sure they are attached firmly. Next, cover the other side of the stick with a plastic tube cut for about 1.5cm long. This tube must fit tightly to the stick. It could be tricky to accomplish this procedure. After casing the other end, wrap the point with a double-sided tape, then wind a jute string tightly around. Securing both ends of the string with instant glue, and a drumstick for this bamboo instrument is done.

Securely fastened joint mat

Plastic tubes for another end

In order to secure the tube,
we slightly sharpen the stick with a rasp.

Secured tube is now covered with a double-sided tape.

The end wrapped with jute string.
The string is applied super-glue.

As a sort of afterthought, we can make a stand for this (maybe) percussion with the remaining foam flooring like this. Each part is simply glued.

My stand

To make sounds, we can use either side of the stick. With the mat, we hit the mouths of the instrument and make dry sounds. With the string-wrapped mallet, we hit the body of the instrument, which creates more echoing sound inside the pipe. The drumstick can be a stick for guiro. After making it, I felt joy. I hit and scratched the instrument until I reached the bus stop with another adult passengers waiting for the bus to come … They saw me in a puzzling face. “What is she doing?" Being an adult is boring.

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-353-1166
FAX：045-352-3086
email: mk-hokubukoen@city.yokohama.lg.jp

We Are All Kids: 2025 Laboratory of Forest Art

 

2025 Laboratory of Forest Art started last Sunday, September 28. This annual art exhibition in Yokohama’s forest is, as usual, under the care of the GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods. 2025 show until October 26 has a theme: Forest, Art, Children. From this year, the GROUP receives funding from Asahi Ward of the City. Their patron gave them this subject. The artists have fulfilled the request joyfully. Each caption for installation has two panels. One is written with Chinese character, i.e. for adults. Another is written only with Hiragana è for kids. You can choose whichever caption you like. Now, let’s play with the art in their forest! 😊

Map for this year’s show

1. Let’s be a Tower Man! 

ISHIKURO Kazuo

“This year, I made a face-cutout towerman. Please be a Tower Man!” 

The trick of the installation should be easier to understand when you see the below photos.

You step up the ladder, put your head inside the towerman, and take a photo. Voila! You’re tower man! … Of course I did it, and my photo looks like a goblin, or ghost at best, of the forest. Creepy ... A kid before me was cuter. Anyway, please try.

Ishikuro prepares wooden horizontal bar next to the Tower Man. It is low enough for 6-year-old to mimic the Towerman-Sloth above the bar.

2. The Garden with Forest Ship
KANAI Toshikazu

“In this forest it is recommended to thin bamboo leaf oaks in order to let sunlight reach the ground and stimulate the undergrowth. By doing this, biodiversity of the place is promoted. Yes, just cutting down one oak, the dim area gets out to an open space with light. It’s fun after such forestry to meet with new environment and enjoy different vista of the forest. This year, we cut down 8 oaks for creating a space for the ship. Some are straight trees. The others are crooked. All in all, they are tough nuts to crack. One sure thing: improved ventilation. The forest wind has started to fit my body. The place is becoming my garden.”

3. Recycling – Plastic (2024)
CHIKADA Haruna

4. Recycling – Forest (2024)
CHIKADA Haruna

5. When you see a forest, The forest is seeing you
CHIKADA Haruna

“BB bullets were aimed at something. They are scattered all over the forest. What was the original target for them? Did the shooters achieve their wish by discharging them?”

Thinking BB bullet garbage in the forest is a continuous theme for Chikada. This time, she let the kids to think about the microplastic contamination and displayed mirror-like mobile installation that can reflect the forest and human with BB bullet. She said “Yeah, some ‘well-thought’ survival gamers use biodegradable BB bullets. They are VERY expensive and take at least 10 years to be decomposed. Meanwhile, we don’t know what kind of impact the bullets give to the environment. What does the forest think while letting those gamers stamping its ground, I wonder.”

6. Snake Garden (2024)
KANAI Toshikazu

7. In the Cockpit
ASADA

“Please check this QR code for the beginning of this installation.

When everybody thought each of us were a captain of Spaceship Earth, it would be difficult to be irresponsible. We should try seriously to navigate the ship better!”

8. Circling scenery
YOSHIKAWA Youichiro

“Please grab the bar and push to walk round slowly whichever direction as much as you like. What sound you hear? What smell you find? Which colour your eyes recognize? How do your soles touch the ground? You are in the Garden of Monkeygrass. How do your five senses feel the forest?”

9. Garden of Monkeygrass without Owner (2024)
YOSHIKAWA Youichiro

He’s really tending this “garden” for years already. Dwarf lilyturfs are getting larger. Meanwhile I found anticlockwise circling was for me with 2025 installation. The ground was still soft. If many people played with this year’s installation, Yoshikawa-san said the ground would be harder. Let us see.

10. Not without a Trace
KIGA Youko

“Here is a groove between planted trees. Was it a stream? If I can make it sure, I’m very happy.”

11. Dust or Gem (2024)
KIGA Youko

“In some rural communities of Japan, there is a custom called ‘Torikugurazu.’ There, people hang objects of spell at the entrance of their village. They hope it would ward off the evil and welcome good luck to their community. Now in the 21st century, the border is sometimes garnished by high concrete walls that can shut off the vista completely, or with barbed wires that must hurt anybody approaching. I guess no evil or good fortune would come to such boorish and artificial objects.”

12. Bond (Wood connect: 2024)
HARADA Akatsuki

13. Let’s make trees
HARADA Akatsuki

“Adults were kids before. Kids will be adults. Many dreams before. I was curious. I had the things I loved. I had the things I hated. I had the things I wanted to do. You are growing little by little while experience many things and learn a lot. Let’s make growing trees like you. You put in branches in holes of logs, will you?”

The idea of this installation is, you write down whatever dream or wish you have on a waterproof “leaf” the artists prepared on a branch with

these permanent markers in a tapper ware and insert the branch to a log with lots of holes. The sizes of the holes are different. Trial and error are what the artists intended. At the end of the exhibition, he hopes there are several trees with many wishes. Next to this installation, Harada-san prepared

which he called “a bridge made of logs harvested from thinning (due to oak tree wilt). They are stabilized by clamps, i.e., bond.” The bridge is also an installation fun to walk above. If you try them with kids, please hold their hand firmly and support s/he at the side.

In addition to the installations on the map, the staff of the GROUP also presented their own works.

Prayer Wheel by ISHIYAMA Katsuyuki.
Please spin them and pray for …

In the Pergola by ISHIYAMA Katsuyuki and
his students in a facility for handicapped people.

Route Art 2025 by ZAMA Kimihito,
ARAI Maki, and INO Ryoko.

They are showing the direction to the venue
from Satoyama Garden 2025 Fall.

The Group holds Weekend Marche till October 13. They sell second hand goods and small objects created by the artists. The money raised this way will fund their art creation. Participation by shopping is welcome.

Also, the Group plans several events during the exhibition. Some are held in Satoyama Garden Venue. For detail, please check here.

In the open space at the entrance there is a small stage,
 and musical instruments hand-made of bamboos are provided.
You can play with them.

On that stage there was a free-jazz concert
for the opening party featuring
SHODA Jiro and Friends.

2025 the Laboratory of Forest Art is held during September 28 – October 26 in the same forest of the previous years. Since there is no parking, a recommended access to the Forest is by bus. The most convenient transportation is a bus ride to Yokohama Zoorasia, from JR Nakayama 中山 Station, Sotetsu Tsurugamine 鶴ヶ峰 Station, or Sotetsu Mitsukyo 三ツ境 Station. Get off the bus at the North Gate of Zoorasia that is the closest to the art exhibition entrance. (Access to Zoorasia North Gate can be referred from here.) When you leave the terminal stop of Zoorasia North Gate, go back a bit along the bus road, and on your left is the sign for the GROUP. From there enter the forest. The road is a relatively wide walking promenade. Soon you can see a big banner over there saying “the Creation and Voice of the Woods 創造と森の声.”

When you find a problem in the site introduced in this post, the best contact address will be GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods.
https://morilab.amebaownd.com/
e-mail: morinokoe7@yahoo.co.jp

The city office which is in charge of this forest is

Zoo Division
動物園課
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-671-4124
FAX：045-550-4650
email: mk-satoyama-garden@city.yokohama.jp