What's Shakin' for the Beginning of February...

February:

This month I have been focused on finishing the surface decoration on my monkey drums, and working on the construction and techniques I will be utilizing to build my larger drums, starting with three to four West African style djembe silhouettes. 

I began by practicing an ancient hand throwing technique I learned from a video by Joyce Michaud, on Ceramic Arts Daily. Quickly realizing how much time and refining it was requiring, I decided to employ slabs, combined with roofing tar paper templates and slump/hump molds, along with wheel thrown parts to build my djembe drums.

Gem, a fellow student, friend, and ceramics master and wisdom provider cleverly suggested the use of, and was kind enough to supply me with, roofing tar paper. I am using it as a template to shape the slabs which will form the bases of my ceramic djembe drums.

Here you can see the beginning of my first two drum bases, and the tar paper templates I am using to achieve the basic form, which will later be refined with the wooden paddles I have made.

I am using thicker slabs slumped carefully inside these bowls, which I later invert and hump the clay over in order to paddle out the shape, and form the bowls of the drums.

These are both in there very rough stages at this point, but you can see that the back bowl is a slightly different colour, and that's because I marbled the clay for that drum. So, when I scrape away the outside surface layer, you will see the design of the mingled red and white clay, which I will accent with simple carving, and a clear glaze.

Possible Glazing Partnership...

Anne-Alise, who is doing a directed study in ceramic glazes kindly offered me any of the glaze samples she's creating and testing, to use on my drums. Luckily, she is testing both white and red clay, so I will be able to determine the results of each unique and beautiful variety and variation before committing to a glaze! Thanks Anne-Alise!

Catching Up on January...

Alright, so as it turns out, this blog hasn't been my main priority in the course of my drum making process thus far, but here goes my attempt at catching you up on my journey! It's been hectic, but fun, and I've learned a lot so far!

January:

The month of January was mostly a write-off, as I got two back-to-back flu bugs that completely restricted my energy, and so to be productive I did a lot of research, material sourcing, problem solving, and small instrument construction with different techniques I was trying out.

I made a trip up to Parksville to purchase some clay, and decided to go with a cone 6 Navaho Wheel red clay with grog to construct all my larger drums. I got clay with the grog for added structural support, and thought a red clay would be aesthetically interesting with my simplistic surface decoration and treatments I'm planning.

I was also finally able to source a few deer hides for my drum skins, which were surprisingly hard to come across. Through  bit of clever investigation and ground work, I was able to get in contact with an elder in the Cowichan Native community, who gets skins from his nephew in Port Alberni, and prepares and cures the hides himself for traditional ceremonial frame drums. He is being generous enough to prepare a skin for me, and I was also able to find a second skin, with the hair still intact, at the thrift store. I'm going to try stretching one of the drums skins with the hair still on, similar to some of traditional African techniques, which I'm sure will produce a unique sound.

Monkey Drums!

I decided to start by hand building two sets of monkey drums, and after attempting coiling, slump and hump molds, and hand building techniques, I finally figured that using slabs and small armatures was the way to go.

Here they are with the armatures still intact inside.


Handles!

I found it was easier to throw these delicate little handles for the drums on the wheel!

Aren't they cute!

Although it was difficult to make such small vessels, and especially to get two that looked exactly alike,

         I think they have a lot of character!

Here are the monkey drums with the armatures removed, hollowed out, 

and with a coil added around each opening to stretch the skins across. 

The various handles and toggles have also been attached.

Paddles!

Traditionally, in many cultures that make hand built drums, they are often shaped with the help of various kinds of wooden paddles, with all sorts of textures applied to them in the form or rope, burlap, or engravings. So, I constructed three wooden paddles and added different textures and patterns, 

leaving one of them blank so I can vary what texture I use with it.

Lets Make Some Music!

I have recently come to the conclusion that it is a shame to go through life without possessing at least some sort of musical capability, and therefore have decided to take on and explore the challenge, and the art of both building and playing hand built ceramic drums. 


I will take aspects of many different drum techniques to inspire by own musical instruments, and functional ceramic vessels, ranging from Native American frame drum designs to African carved surface treatments, and djembe silhouettes. 


Please keep in mind that this is my first attempt at both recording my artistic process, and creating a blog, so it may be a little shaky in the beginning, but hopefully something is learned and gained through the process.


I will be updating with my ponderings, progresses, and pictures hopefully at least once a week, so here it goes...