That "low beat"

[your_comforting_company]

Bill showed me a wooden tube, and I mentioned I could make something out of it, so he said "Here ya go!" I brought it home, sanded it kinda smooth, and painted it with some leftover black I had from the solar melter.
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It's about 9.5" so if I want an inch all the way around, that would be 11.5 or roughly 12".
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A bucket lid makes a great pattern at 12.25". Add weight on top so that it, nor the skin underneath can move around.
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I forgot to take a picture of this step, so I'm going to explain it best I can. Find the rough circumference of the circle at 1/2" in from the edge. In my case it was 34.5". I chose to have 13 holes, so divide and you end up with roughly 2-5/8" between holes. Using a wood block and a nail set, I pre-punched holes a half inch in, and every 2-5/8 inches apart all the way around. Next I used a "not really good" knife to make the punched holes into slots that run parallel to the edge. I used nails to keep the two skins in line. Hopefully you can see all the stuff that's going on.
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I cut thongs a half to three-quarters of an inch wide and however long I could get out of the scrap that was left. Keep in mind that everything is completely soaked and limber with water. It's also pretty tough to hold on to. To make the thong continuous, you need a parallel slot in each end of the thong. One is already in position, so the end of it goes in through the slot in one end of your next thong, then the end of the new one goes through the end slot of the working thong. Maybe the picture will help it make sense.
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Using more thongs than necessary, get the heads loosely in position and begin tightening the thongs, taking out slack as you go, working in two directions (clockwise AND counter-clockwise at the same time) pull all the slack to one side of the drum, then tie it off using whatever knot you are familiar with. I used a simple half-hitch.
Now it is hanging to dry. It could take a few days, or weeks, but it already has a very low tone with two heads. I may or may not cut the hole in the bottom head depending on the pitch and sound when it's dry.
It's not difficult to make one of these, and hopefully you'll be able to follow along with these basic instructions and pictures and make yourself one!

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This is some leftover cow hide from the previous rawhide/leather adventure. The reason we use lashings made from the same hide, is that it should dry and shrink at about the same rate as the heads, all the while making the drum tighter. This way you don't have to go back and tighten them later.
Can't wait to sit by the campfire and bang out a few dances with it. Enjoy!

Oh.. if anyone has info on earth pigment stains, I am interested to hear. I would like to decorate it with a few "crude" drawings.

[COWBOYSURVIVAL]

Looks great YCC! I have a few rawhide projects in the works (Horse tack)

[hunter63]

Very cool.....got an old set of bongos that I am fixin' on redoing the heads with raw hide........

Ever tried that red clay for color, I know that some of it really stains my coveralls........

[crashdive123]

Nicely done YCC.

[randyt]

awesome job!!

[1stimestar]

YCC you might enjoy learning about henna to stain things. I'm a henna artist and know lots of henna artists who use their henna to decorate drums. You can get very detailed and precise. And it is a natural pigment. Just do a search for henna drums or mandalas.

[Batch]

If you have access to a latex producing tree, such as a fig, banyan, rubber tree or strangler fig. You can use that milky latex and mix in pigments from colored clay, charcoal, powdered shell, and plant juices. If you use clay you have to powder it first. You can buy powdered shell as powdered lime in garden shops. It will make a white paint. But, like all latex paints white is your base color.

Pokeberry off of the Poke Salet makes a deep purple, Grapes be used and adding lime can give you reds and blues. mix the juices half and half with the latex. Try what ever berries are in season and experiment.

Also, you can make a brush out of palmetto stems. You have to rett the brush end.

[Sarge47]

Nice, you going to make a guitar next?........

[your_comforting_company]

I've considered it Sarge. Just gotta work out how I'm going to hack a tree down into shape with a rock

Thanks for the tips 1TS and Batch. I knew about a few of the pigments, but wasn't sure if they needed mordants or any special mixing. I have a huge fig tree, and lots of pokeweed growing around. I'll do some experimenting with a small piece of rawhide and see what I can come up with. Purples sound nice.

[riverjoe]

Careful on the Poke weed . I stained the rawhide backing on a Hickory bow with it and it was more like Princes " Rasberry Beret "

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