About Us - The Stellar Team

We are so very lucky to have a team of skilled artisans and top notch humans working with us to make this flute magic happen. We're so proud of our team!

Tom Stewart - Our Founder and Owner

Tom Stewart, Founder of Stellar Flutes , a day at work tuning flutes

Tom founded Stellar in 1995 when by a wonderful series of events he was introduced to the Native American Flute. The experience of making flutes, honing techniques, and creatively adding to the flute- making technology has been an engaging, arduous, and fulfilling task.

 

Lily Wilcox - Owner 

Lily Wilcox, owner of Stellar Flutes, A day at work with Dad

Lily is " Stellar, the next generation." She can take a flute blank and turn it into a beautifully tuned and finished flute. She runs every aspect of the business from wood working to office management and is the star of all of our flute playing video tutorials.

Tim  Keyzers

Tim Keyzers, Stellar Flutes team member, a day at work sanding flutes

Tim is our amazing flute finisher.  Once flutes are shaped and tuned, he takes them to his shop where he carefully hand sands them and applies the varnish.

 

Tabitha Collins

Tabitha Colins, Stellar Flutes team member, a day at work prepping flutes for tuning.

Tabitha is our wonderful office helper, working part time at Stellar and full time as a mother to her baby girl who joins us in the office to help with shipping and preparing flutes for the website. 

 

Andrew "Wally" Walnum

Wally with Goat- Stellar Flutes team member playing flute to on of his goats

Wally is our shop boss! He came to us with an extensive knowledge of woodworking . He mills all of the wood for making flutes and shares the flute lathe work with Lily and oversees our in shop employees. 

Patty Breault

Patty Breault, Stellar Flutes team member

Patty is a skilled seamstress, she works from home making our lovely carrying cases and delivering them to us.

 

Neva Lewis

Neva, Stellar Flutes team member

Neva is our newest addition. She brings her skills as a detail oriented artist to our shop where she glues flute blanks, files fipples and prepares flutes for the lathe. 

 

A Beautiful Documentary About Stellar Flutes

 

 

A Word about making Native American style flutes

My father and I are not Native American. Our ancestry is Scottish, Swedish, Wendish and more (in other words we are white). So let's  talk a moment about  what it means to make Native American style flutes.

Our flutes are not Native made.  Out of respect we don't decorate them with artwork that is traditionally Native such as feather work, bead work or Native American symbols.

So, what does it mean to make Native American style flutes? It means we are making a kind of instrument that was invented by Native American and First Nation people. This style of flute is different from the traditional silver flute and other flutes because it has a two chamber design; the slow air chamber(SAC) and the main bore. These two chambers are connected with a third piece called a block which allows air to pass from the chamber you blow into up and across the opening (fipple hole) to the second chamber.

The modern Native American style flutes are made in this same way, but we now have access to electric tuners, and most people who make and sell this style of flute tune it to feature pentatonic minor scale.

 

We were lucky enough to have PBS shoot this wonderful documentary about our business and family. I f you want to learn a little more about who we are, give this a watch!

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Pre-Bored Flute Making Kit

$30.00

Meet our Pre Bored Native American style flute making kit.
This is our most advanced woodworking kit, ideal for confident woodworkers with fully equipped shops. The kit includes a set of western red cedar flute halves, a flat block base, a larger carving block, a leather strap, and a booklet with instructions and measurements for completing flute. The flute halves have been bored to a 7/8 inch bore diameter and have had the fipple holes precisely routed. The fipple holes are often referred to as the sound holes, not to be confused with the finger holes.

Below this product you will find some pre cut animal shapes that can be substituted for the included larger block. If added to the cart we will replace the larger unshaped block with the animal shaped block.
The two include blocks both have the precisely routed groove in the bottom. The small flat block base is ideal for quickly rubber banding on during the tuning process, but after the flute is finished it is wonderful for gluing objects to. Consider attaching a carving, a small piece of driftwood, a gemstone, or a small sculpture to this block to adorn your new flute!

The larger carving block is shaped in such a way that it will not impede the air flow of the block and it is large enough that you can carve many interesting things out of it.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to watch a video on completing this kit.

What’s involved in making a Pre Bored Kit into a Flute?

-Glue the flute halves together using wood glue and spring clamps

-Sand the outside of the flute blank once dry to remove the glue bead and even any irregularity.

-Perfect the fipple holes using metal files

-Measure and pre drill the fingering holes and four direction hole using the provided measurements.

-shape the flute blank to the desired shape using either hand shaping tools or a lathe

- fully hand sand the blank down to 180 grit (it will need to be touched up after tuning, so don’t bother sanding with 220 grit yet)

-tune the flute using the instructions provided

- finish sand the flute and prepare for varnishing/oiling

- apply your desired finish to the inside and outside of the flute (you must apply finish after the flute is glued because the glue seam needs to be sealed to avoid delamination)

-carve your block avoiding the groove

- apply desired finish to the block

-Enjoy your new flute!

As you can see from the directions, this is not a quick or easy process. It may seem tempting to buy this less expensive kit to save money, but after buying all the supplies you need to complete it you may find that it was not the less expensive option after all!

If you are stuck along the way, you can always use the contact form to email us and we will help guide you. Most mess ups are fixable!