Two cupped hands holding a small purple 3D-printed whistle mouthpiece
Photo: MattWoelk via Thingiverse, CC BY. Resized and converted to WebP.
Novelty · Hand whistle

Palm Whistle

A tiny printed fipple: cup your hands around it and they become the ocarina

Designed by MattWoelk, published on Thingiverse

CC BY 4.0 Commercial use OK Build info 1/5

Licence verified on Thingiverse, 20 October 2026.

Size
About 22 × 24 × 65 mm, one STL file
Range
A full octave and everything in between, with practice
Extras
None; wear it on a necklace
Difficulty
Easy to print; playing takes practice
On Thingiverse
95 likes · 4 comments (as of 20 Oct 2026)

About the Palm Whistle

Hand flute (or hand whistle) players blow across the gap between their thumbs and use their cupped hands as the chamber of a vessel flute. The Palm Whistle makes that easier. It's a small fipple, the mouthpiece and edge of a whistle, that sits in your cupped hands. Your hands still form the chamber, so you change the note by opening and closing them, like playing an ocarina.

The designer says you can get a full octave, and every note in between, with a bit of practice, and the tone is crisper than a plain hand flute. It's a single small print, so it's a quick, cheap project, and you can thread it on a necklace and carry it everywhere.

Who it's for. Anyone who wants a pocket instrument or a fun first print, and hand-flute players who want a more reliable sound. The design page is short. The demo video shows how to hold and play it better than any description. We haven't built one ourselves, so treat this page as a summary of the designer's page, not a review.

What you'll need

Printed parts

  • The palm whistle (one part)

Bought parts

  • None listed; add a cord if you want to wear it

Tools

  • A 3D printer

Build overview

The design page has no instructions. This is our own outline, from the designer's description and video.

  1. Print it. Print the single STL.
  2. Hold it. Cup your hands together around it to make a closed chamber, as in the photo.
  3. Play. Blow into the mouthpiece and open or close your hands to change the note, as on an ocarina. Watch the video to see how the designer does it.

Video

Play video: The Palm Whistle played (loads YouTube)
The Palm Whistle played, Matt Woelk (the designer). Plays from youtube-nocookie.com after you click.

Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Video thumbnails are © their creators.

Photos

Thingiverse doesn't let us fetch its gallery, so the photos stay on Thingiverse. See them on Thingiverse ↗

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