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.