Fixing my dizi

Previously, on Flutey Things and How to Play Notes:
My husband brought back a dizi (Chinese flute) from San Francisco, and I proceeded to immediately break the membrane that gives it its distinctive sound. I ordered supplies to apply a new membrane.

And now, the thrilling conclusion:
The supplies from China got here!!!!

So now I will show you how I fixed my dizi.  It was an interesting experience for me.  We will go step by step.  Here is the link I used to help me ensure I was doing this correctly.  It only took me three attempts to actually get the membrane on and have the dizi sound, as far as I know, correctly.  So, yes, I am pretty pleased with myself.

The first thing I did was remove my temporary "membrane" of scotch tape so that the hole was clean and ready for surgery.

Then I pulled out a piece of membrane and cut it so that there would be room, generous room since this was my first time doing this, on all sides of the hole.

I gently rubbed the membrane between my thumb and middle finger so that the membrane would open into a roughly cylindrical shape.

Once it was open, I cut along the length of the cylinder to form a rectangular shape, so that the membrane would be ready to be glued to the dizi.

I dipped my finger in water and rubbed the glue (the small black block in the image below) - it is my understanding that a little goes a long way in this process when it comes to glue - and rubbed the water-glue mixture around the desired hole.

I wiped off excess glue, particularly right around the hole and the inside, so that the membrane would attach but be flexible enough to move around.

I placed the membrane carefully over the hole.

Then I rubbed, gently (because the membrane is super sensitive! Not being gentle is what got me into this adventure in the first place!), up and down on both sides, attempting to make wrinkles in the membrane.  The wrinkles in the membrane are what give the dizi its unique sound.

And, voila! My dizi is fixed.   I made a short recording of the before and after sounds so you can hear the difference, I hope.

Before: with the scotch tape.   After: with the wrinkled membrane.