Over the past few weeks, we have been working on building our bodhran drums. It was a pretty simple step by step process and by the end it felt good to know the drums we were going to learn to play, we had built entirely ourselves. We started off with the base of the drum, the rim.
(source: alibaba.com)
The rim is a rounded piece of wood that has two crosspieces in the back to make it easier to hold while playing. We started off by thoroughly sanding the wood so it would be as smooth as possible for when we began to paint. The next step, of course, was to paint. Our teacher, Caroline offered us a few options for colors of the varnish: pine, oak, walnut, and mahogany. I chose walnut, a darker wood color. After applying the varnish to the rim, it was time to attach the head of the drum. The head of the drum was made of goat skin. Caroline had let the goat skins soak in water over night in order for them to become easier to stretch.
(source: catdreams.com)
We applied wood glue to the top of the rim and stretched the goat skin over the rim to be as tight as possible. Once the skin was stretched as much as desired, we placed an elastic around the rim in order to keep the skin in place. After leaving this over night, it was time to do the best part, decorating the drum. After cutting the extra goat skin around the sides, Caroline offered us various colored ribbons and gave us gold tacks. I chose a purple ribbon with just a few golden tacks around it. It was finally looking like a real drum. Although it may not look like one you could buy at a store, it was nice knowing I had built it entirely myself. Now all we have to look forward to is learning how to play it!
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