Tom & Erika Stewart

White Buffalo

Biography

by

TOM AND ERIKA STEWART

Tom and Frika Stewart live on Phillips Lake
on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.
Tom has been a wood worker for thirty years
and has made many beautiful and inventive
wood products over the years,
but making Native American flutes has been the highlight
of his woodworking career.

Their production, which takes place at Phillips Lake,
is a family effort. Even daughter Lily,
age ten, helps by collating booklets, ironing flute bags
and doing other flute related tasks.
Erika designs and applies the decorative cotton whipping to each flute.

The unique method of weaving and whipping is a
process she developed. She also makes the
flute cases which she designed. For their family,
flute making is a joyful adventure.

SOUNDS FROM THE PAST

These beautiful instruments have been making music in America
since long before the Europeans arrived.

In the last few centuries they were used by many North American tribes
including the Hopi, Zuni, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Yuchi to mention just a few.
Sometimes called a courting
or love flute a young man might play his special tune in the evening within listening distance of a special young woman. Hopefully the right young woman would hear it,
and recognizing his particular tune or style of playing,
follow hin into the night.

AN ANCIENT FLUTE IN A MODERN WORLD

Today Native American flutes are popular with both Native and non-Native Americans. Musicians like Sea Raven, Charles Littleleaf, Mac Lopez, Ron Roybal, Gary Stroutsos Kevin Locke and R. Carlos Nakai have done much to increase its role in the recording industry and in the music world in general.

But yon don't have to be a recording artist or a young courting Indian to put a Stellar flute to good use. It takes a very short time, usually an hour or two to master the five-note scale the flute was designed to feature. The notes in this scale can't he arranged in any
combination that sounds wrong.

MUSICAL NOTES

The five noto pentatonic scale is a natural minor scale. Even if you have no musical experience at all the Native American flute will treat you with respect and offer you a lifetime of musical companionship.
And although it is easy to learn to play,
you will never quit expandung its potential.


While the instrument seems to want to play itself in the minor scale, it is not limited to these five tones. All the tones of the chromatic scale can be played. A complete fingering is included.

JOIN THE FUN

We hope you will get a flute and join us.
Learning to play is not hard and it is more
fun than you would ever believe.
Playing mutes cynicism and anger and sets the mood for meditation.
The positive effects don't wear off quickly. For us they are cumulative.
The flute comes with instructional literatare, maintenance and care information, and a beautiful bag, made of hand-loomed Guatemalen jaspe. The bag has a shoulder strap for easy carrying.

MY PROMISE TO YOU

We unconditionally guarantee not only the simplicity or learning to play, but that our Stellar flutes have a clear, melodic tone and are in tune. lf you feel this is not the case, return the flute and bag in good condition and we will promptly refund your money without a word of argument.

VISIONS OF WORLD PEACE

There are a number of legends in pre=Columbian Indian cultue that emerged independently of one another predicting terrible destruction to their way of life and the death of most of their people, followed by a vast and total recovery that would take many generations. A predicted healing so powerful that Indigenous Americans would become
the vanguard of the world peace movement.

We carry this beutiful idea of recovery and triumph with us alays.
Though it resides in our hearts more like a wish than a belief,
we can't help trying to give it a push.

As makers of Native Amerian flutes
we have found a path. A peaceful direction that seems
to be in line with our natural skills.
By making concert quality Native American flutes
that are affordable, we may be adding a tile
to the mosaic of peace on earth.

We see the flutes as a very positive trend in the world
and they are here to stay.

We also see world as an inevitable part of our destiny.


This six hole Stellar flute is made of Alaskan yellow cedar. The bird, or block, is hand-carved of Pacific Yew The flute ploys in the key of G minor and features the pentatonic, or five-note scale. It is possible, through a process of whole and half fingerirg to play all twelve tones of the chromatic scale. This concert quality flute is electronically tuned. It comes with a jaspe' carrying case, fingering chart, playing and care instructions.


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Last Updated: April 27, 1999


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