John Suttles

  John Suttles is a native to Southwest Missouri, and is retired, and able to devote a large amount of energy to his favorite craft - flutemaking. He started making river cane flutes, and moved on to make wood flutes. He has much experience in making the 1 piece bored and turned flute. He also makes branch flutes, 2 piece, hand gouged. John likes to use "recovered" dead wood of the local region, as he feels a living tree or limb should not be killed to make a flute, rather bring a dead piece of wood back to like as a flute, thus restoring the spirit of the piece of wood. John is of "mixed blood" part white, part Cherokee, and ir proud and respects the heritage he receives from his early settler, and native American ancestors. He comes from a long line of hand crafters. He has exceptional skill at tuning flutes of many configurations, and does much prototyping of flute designs, both for himself and others, when requested. He is often refered to as "Ozarkguru" among the flute community.