Unique designs of flute bags evolve in response to common needs shared by flute owners everywhere. We do not always have enough free hands to carry our flutes, so bags can be useful. And beautiful.

These bags are constructed using high quality deer or optionally, elk hide. They are soft to the touch and are extremely durable. However, this leather is not weather proof and may not be color fast. Soft bags will not protect a flute from hard knocks commonly encountered while traveling. For those situations, hard flute cases such as those made by Mark Slater (The Flute Case Store) are appropriate.Large bags are typically 25" to 30" long and about 6" to 6.5" wide. This is usually large enough to comfortably carry two to three flutes ... with each flute stored in it's own protective fleece cover. The approximate finished size of a new bag can be specified when ordering.

These are the leather colors currently offered by my supplier for deer or elk hides.

Smoke-colored deer hide; ~ 26" long by 6" wide

This deer hide flute bag featured a 5-strand woven strap with an 11" long pad. The pad featureed Spanish edge braid.

The adjustable latch system included an Elk antler, a shell from Florida's Atlantic coast, buffalo hairpipe and crow beads.

The hand cut fringe, round bottom piece and strap materials were all obtained from the same hide. It was large enough to comfortably hold 1" bore flutes in their fleece bags.

These two deer hide flute bags were created for brothers.

This custom bag is about 29" long with a 7" diameter and was constructed using a combination of Deer and Elk leather. This image shows decorative elements and techniques which may be used to devise an original design for your own leather flute bag.

This bag was entered in the 2006 Musical Echoes Native American Flute and Cultural Festival art competition. The design theme that year was 'Kokopelli' and although this bag wasn't an award winner, it provided an invaluable opportunity to work on a variety of new techniques and design elements. Among those represented on this bag are: the painted figure on the bottom of the bag; the two buttons obtained from deer antler have Kokopelli figures wood burned on them; the latch string catch was carved from Padauk and has an inlay Kokopelli figure made with Malachite, gold and Osage Orange wood.

This is a Possibles Bag created expressly for Joey Hill to carry one of his small drones ... an example of the J. Hill drone flute in my collection appears next to the bag. Putting the 'rough' side of the leather on the outside as Joey requested, can provide a very interesting effect.

I carry my high F# drone flute in a Holster Bag like the one shown here. After all, keeping our flutes handy is the surest way to make sure they are played regularly. This bag and the one shown above  have deer antler buttons containing wood-burned designs

With this bag, I experimented with an alternative to the flap closure. Although the three-strand braided draw cord isn't actually used to cinch the opening, it looks like it could, and that was the point of this design.

This neck-carried bag was created using smoked, brain-tanned deer hide. Dimensions of the machine sewn bag are approximately 4" wide, 3" high and 3/4" wide. The deer hide neck strap is about 14" long.

Beading and a small bit of deer antler are used to enhance the rattlesnake hide (~1.5" x 2") featured on the front of the bag.