Magical Houses -- Sustainable Materials

[1monster]

My neighbor has a bamboo garden. It is amazing how very fast it grows and it is beautiful!

[cantbeserious]

1. Very Inspiring

eom

[trusty elf]

2. Magnificent structures!

Very interesting video, thanks!

[jtuck004]

3. That's probably easier where there is lots of space and less expensive labor, but I

do wonder what it would look like applied to tiny homes.

I noticed several places where they had poles tied together or splayed out for support, but that take room.

Still, I suspect the structural strength would let you do that, even in a small footprint.

I need to get some bamboo for the garden.

[1monster]

4. Before you buy any bamboo, research the different kinds. Bamboo is grass and

spreadslike grass. It can be very hard to control.

My neighbor uses clumping bamboo. I'll try to remember to ask her for the names of the kinds she uses when I see her again and pass that on to you.

[jtuck004]

5. I had heard about it being invasive, and

I was going to check the one they showed in the video.

Thank you for that!

[marble falls]

8. Keeping bamboo contained is easy if some precautions are taken up front....

Putting a metal barricade a foot or deeper around the plantings will keep them contained because roots are shallow.

[Enthusiast]

6. Fascinating! nt

[panfluteman]

7. I Make My Own Pan Flutes from Bamboo!

The species of bamboo that is generally the most preferred for making Pan Flutes is Tonkin Cane (Arundinaria amabilis McClure), which is also the most preferred species for making bamboo fishing rods. I, however, make my Pan Flutes from Black Bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra), which is also used in Chinese herbal medicine for treating certain kinds of cough and phlegm congestion due to its high resin content. Black Bamboo was the preferred species of my first teacher, Damian Luca's great uncle, Fanica Luca, who was also the teacher of Zamfir, and the "grandaddy" of the Pan Flute who saved it from extinction, and taught a new generation how to play. Tonkin bamboo has a very brilliant sound, but it can be too brash and brassy; Black Bamboo has all the resonance and sonority of Tonkin, but is also sweeter, mellower and warmer in tone. The Japanese vertically blown, Zen inspired bamboo flute, the Shakuhachi, is made from Moso bamboo, known in Japanese as "Madake", which literally means "authentic bamboo"; the botanical name is Phyllostachys bambusoides, and it's a close relative of Black Bamboo, of the same genus. Moso or Madake can also be used to make Pan Flutes, but it doesn't have the full sonority of Tonkin or Black Bamboo. Another good species for making Pan Flutes is Golden Bamboo, or Phyllostachys aurea; it is somewhere midway between Moso and Black bamboo in its characteristics, and has a rich golden hue. Golden Bamboo has greater sonority than Moso, but doesn't have some of the undesirable quirks in its bore dimensions that Black Bamboo has.

[1monster]

9. I'll have to remember that the next time I do a summer music camp where we make pan

pipe flutes.

I couldn't find any bamboo around here (on short notice) that was suitable (what I could find was either too thick or too thin), so we ended up using PVC pipe. It worked relatively well, considering that the students were pre to early teens.

[panfluteman]

10. I Try to Get the Highest Quality Bamboo

imported from China and the Far East. I have been getting it from certain bamboo dealers in the Huntington Beach area, like Frank's Cane and Rush Supply (best for black bamboo) or Benson Imports. The qualities you look for in good bamboo for Pan Flutes is hardness, density, moderate wall thickness (not too thick, not too thin), straightness, and sonority. Each type of bamboo has its own different timbre or sound quality. I also slowly roast my bamboo in an oven at low temperatures over a period of several hours; this is like kiln drying it, and greatly reduces the problem of cracking to virtually zero. There are softer, easier to work with types of bamboo that can also be used to make Pan Flutes - beginner or student models - Italian Cane, or Arundinaria sativa (a relative of Tonkin) is just such a soft bamboo, but nevertheless remarkably sonorous and sweet in tone. Italian Cane is mainly used to make reeds for saxophones, clarinets and other reed instruments. You can even use the river cane that grows in the canyons in California and the southwest, USA, but that's just as a last resort; the Mexicans call it Carizzo.

[1monster]

11. Thanks for the info!