Tag: stretching rawhide

The hand drums in the 2023 collection were meticulously handmade by Po using the following method:

Cedar Drum Frames: Receiving, Sanding & Painting

The raw drum frames are shipped in from Western Canada.
Po has built a wood steamer and will be bending her own frames over the winter.

The raw drum frames are sanded using machinery and then finished by hand.

The sanded drum frames are then hand painted
using a multi-layer rubbing technique.
The drum frames used in the buffalo drums are stained/waxed.
Both painted and stained frames are varnished
in an oil based spar varnish so that the drums can be taken to outside drum circles.

Rawhide: Receiving, Cutting, Soaking & Stretching

For this collection, the buffalo and elk rawhides
have been shipped from Western Canada.
The materials support Indigenous communities.
In the woods where Po grew up, huge elk wandered the land.
Elk rawhide is Po’s prefered drum skin to paint.

The hide is unrolled and the rough cutting pattern is taped to the hide.
To do this, Po has at least one family member hold down the hide.
As you can see, the hide is too big for her to do it alone without using clamps.

Although a drywall knife will generally cut through the elk rawhide,
for the buffalo, a jigsaw was needed. Buffalo is very thick and fibrous.

Below, Po is holding the elk rawhide
that she rough cut for the 24″ drum: “Nature in Me.”
Notice how the varying levels of transparency
reveal animal and spirit faces in the rawhide.

Once the rawhides have been roughly cut,
Po soaks them in spring water for about 24 hrs before stretching.
In the photo below, three 10 inch drum skins have been put in together.
After a couple of hours, they will naturally flatten out.
For the above drum skin, Po used a kiddy pool and filled it with spring water.
The skins are held down by rocks that she brought from the woods where she grew up.
At least one rock will have quartz.

These are the tools that Po uses to prepare the rawhide for stretching.
A different template is used depending on the size.
Po’s drums have an average of 20 pleats.
The 24 inch drum skin has 32 pleats.
The more pleats in a hand drum, the tighter the skin forms to the frame
and a more even pitch is achieved.
Most drum makers use 12-16 pleats on average.
16 pleats and over (at least for 14 inch drums or larger) are considered “premium.”

After the template is drawn onto the wet and pliable rawhide,
Po cuts the accurate shape and punches the string holes.

Before tightening the strings, Po measures the depth of the drum frame :
drum skin ratio to best assure an even overlap.
Some drums, however, dry and stretch differently.
The rawhide is so strong while it shrinks and dries,
that it can bend the frame and even pull the hide in its own direction.
This gives each drum a one-of-a-kind hand made character.

Po uses synthetic sinew that has been pre-waxed.
It takes about 60+ feet of sinew to string a typical drum.
As for the 24 inch drum in the collection, Po used about 100 feet of sinew.
This is where Mom comes to the rescue as Po’s assistant.
Her mom, Kim, does her best to prevent the sinew from tangling during the process
of Po pulling the sinew through the rawhide.

When the moon is full and bright, Po finds it peaceful to string drums outside.

The strings are then gathered in groupings
and then decoratively strung with a nice wound finish.
The drums in the exhibit have had the top of the centre tie waxed with beeswax.
This is done to anchor the end of the sinew in the knot
and to provide a personal connection between drummer and drum.
The more the drummer holds it, the beeswax forms to the drummer’s hand,
thus imprinting on the drum itself.
This extension can last a lifetime – hand drums are that special.

The drums are put on racks to dry.
The drying process takes about 3 days.
During, this time, the strings tighten and the drum will sound like it is drumming
or fiddle strings are being plucked.

Image: Sketching, Printing, Stenciling & Painting

Image creation begins with inspiration memories and walks.
Then sketches are made from day visions and night dreams received.
The collection of images for this exhibit took about 4 months to surface.
Not all drawings were used.
They will be kept in a file until another collection is created.

The images are then refined in such ways as to fit the collection or personality of the drum. This process is drawn by hand using a light table.

The drawn image is then digitally cleaned up to establish clean smooth lines.

A template / stencil is then printed out using a Cricut Maker.

Once the image is cut out and weeded,
Po traces the image onto the rawhide using a 2H pencil.

Using No.2 and No.3 professional watercolour brushes,
Po paints the drums faces with hand mixed hues of Golden So Flat acrylic paint.
This is how Po’s paint technique ends up being so crisp and flat.

After the paint dries for 24-72 hrs,
the face is then preserved by spraying an oil based paint/hide-friendly varnish

Presenting Completed Hand Painted Hand Drums