Meet Charlie Mato-Toyela

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlie Mato-Toyela.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I started making Native American Flutes after my Cherokee grandfather showed me how to make a small original whistle which inspired me to become a flute maker. Selling my first flutes at a powwow, I thought “wow, it doesn’t get any better than this.” A few years later, I met my wife through my flute sales, as she saw me at an event and contacted me about a custom flute. Little did I know that this simple musical instrument would change both of our lives. Each of my three children has played the flute since they were able to walk and they each have become very able and accomplished artists/musicians in my opinion.

There were times when moving cross country or when I was in between jobs that I had to find money to pay the bills or even put food on the table when we were struggling, and the flutes were always there to help. Eventually, when we started selling on eBay, for a short time, we were one of the few Native American Flute makers and experienced great revenues from that. I mention many times to people when speaking about the early days believe that at one point we “crashed the flute market.” What I mean is that there were times when there were hundreds of flutes listed on the auction site for sale and the only ones selling were ours. This could have been for many reasons such as our flutes were actually Native-made, our prices were reasonable or simply the “Aurora” of our business ethics. I do remember one time that precisely the opposite happened. I found a flute on eBay that someone else was selling described as “an Indian sold this to me at a powwow and said he made it.” The flute was a cheap imported whistle which I recognized right off and was covered in brightly covered chicken feathers tied on with leather. The flute sold for more than any I had listed at the time! It made me angry, not because someone outsold me, but because I recognized the cheaply made import being advertised as something else. I later experienced a larger more full-scale campaign from another company selling imported flutes.

Many different things intimidated me during the stay of our business and sometimes to the point that I set it all down and said: “I’m not making another flute.” Once, I even sold all of my tools and tried going down another path to try and become a “corporate man.” I have had so many different jobs in my life. When I would get sad at how the world was going, it seems that I would always default back to working with plants (I grew up in my parents’ plant nursery business, so getting a job working for a nursery was easy). The way we treat our flutes, the wood and material that they are made from and even our websites, sales avenues, YouTube channel and our customers are all similar to the way you have to treat plants in order to keep them healthy and growing. These days, I could never decide to quit making flutes. My family and I live and breath it. It sustains me not only financially, but also mentally and spiritually. Late at night many times, we are answering emails or making business strategies or sometimes planning trips where we can make new flute making videos or in some way promote our business. Our days are filled making flutes and advertising as well as shipping our wonderful instruments all over the world. Prominent musicians play our instruments as well as the beginner looking for an affordable way to start their “flute journey.” We have thousands of followers on social media, hundreds of videos on YouTube teaching others about making or playing the Native American Flute. You can see posts of some of the beautiful work that we do on our Instagram page. I get calls and emails these days asking if I can record with people and we even have a video shoot scheduled for an upcoming episode of a new documentary series called “The Craft,” which is about people who make things by hand. In many of our YouTube videos, you can see images of our “older workshops” as we progressed through the last 10 or so years, however we never took pictures of making flutes on those rainy days after immediately coming home from my corporate works to go and push the table saw out a little further on the back porch in order to cut flute blanks out. Or when, on several occasions, I made flutes in a room of an apartment, specifically set up for that. It was dusty!

We’ve come a long way from the old days -starting 32 years ago- and during our one “slow week” out of the year (really we only have a slow day now and then), sometimes I reflect back and think “we used to only make this many flutes a year!”

Please tell us about your art.
We make Native American Flutes. This actually encompasses many many types of instruments. Although we focus on wooden North American Indian type flutes, we also make Central American clay whistles, animal calls and even the occasional Polynesian Nose Flute and Brazilian berimbau.

I like making these instruments because it teaches people that things can be simple, yet enjoyable and that everyone is capable and can do it.

Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Don’t give up! That is my motto. Also, something that I am quoted saying regularly is “no matter what, everything is going to be ok.” It is unfortunate. However, the struggle is what defines us. Without it, there is no beauty in art.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Check out our website and Etsy page: bluebearflutes.com & etsy.com/shop/BlueBearFlutes

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: facebook.com/bluebearflutes & instagram.com/bluebearflutes

Subscribe to us on YouTube: youtube.com/bluebearflutes

Buy a flute, interact with us and even make a donation if you like what you see!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bluebearflutes.com/
• Phone: 800-518-9607
• Email: bluebear@bluebearflutes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluebearflutes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bluebearflutes
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bluebearflutes
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueBearFlutes

Image Credit:
Jonathan Britt at Elympic Records just outside of Nashville is in the photo next to me.
My flute on display in a diorama is at the Moundville Museum in Alabama

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.