Teotihuacan Clay Fish Flute #165

A deep clay flute with flowing tones

This clay flute is hand made in Teotihuacan, Mexico by artisan Jose Mendoza, whose instruments draw from traditional pre-Spanish Mexican art forms. We are really fortunate to have met Jose, and to be able to offer his flutes.

The voice of these flutes inspire presence.

These flutes are not tuned to standard European scales. Each flute carries its own unique tuning and tonal movement, shaped individually through hand crafting and breath. Rather than inviting expectation or rigid musical structure, they encourage a more open relationship with listening — one rooted in presence, curiosity, and direct experience.

As the sound emerges from the flute, tones may shift unexpectedly between minor and major textures, creating an experience that feels organic, fluid, and alive. In practice, many people find this opens a more immediate connection to sound itself, where listening becomes less about prediction and more about entering into the changing flow of tone as it unfolds.

A Personal Connection to These Flutes

Our store manager, Jonathan Wood, met Jose while traveling to Teotihuacan with his family, on a trip to Mexico City. When he arrived to Mexico, he had vivid images of flute playing come into mind — not of the standard musical scales we are used to hearing, but elegant organic tones that spoke to the trees and the wind, in a meditative union.

When he heard Jose playing his flute, it was the transcendent sound he imagined. For him these flutes are a way of connecting elementally to nature, and the natural present, enfused with deep intention and awareness. 

Use in Practice

Rather than trying to control what the flute should sound like, many practitioners find it meaningful to bring a sense of presence and intention into the playing itself. The practice becomes less about producing correct notes and more about entering into relationship with the living movement of sound.

You may choose to hold a simple quality inwardly while playing — such as wonder, openness, gratitude, or joy — allowing the tones to emerge from that state regardless of whether the intervals feel bright, dark, expected, or unfamiliar.

Over time, the flute can become a way of listening beyond structure, where sound is experienced not as performance, but as a direct expression of awareness and breath.

Sound arises.
And we listen.

Additional Details

• Hand made in Teotihuacan, Mexico by Jose Mendoza
• Clay shell flute with soft, flowing, breath-centered tones
• Inspired by traditional pre-Spanish Mexican artistic forms
  
• Each flute is individually hand crafted with natural variations