Many of the activities on these pages may require adult supervision.
Be sure to tell a grown-up about what you're planning and ask for permission before getting started.

Make one with leather.

To make one with leather, you'll need a wooden salad bowl, a circle of rawhide 4 inches wider than the diameter of the bowl, and one or two long rawhide shoelaces. You might find an old salad bowl in a junk shop or at a lawn sale. Sometimes you can buy unfinished wooden bowls inexpensively. To get a piece of rawhide, go to a hobby shop, a fabric store, or a leathercraft studio. Tell the leather worker what you are making. Maybe he or she will have another kind of leather that will work just as well.

With a leather punch, punch holes at 2-inch intervals around the edge of the rawhide circle (or ask a leather worker or friendly shoemaker to do it for you). Soak the circle and the shoelace for twenty-four hours. Then, using the wet lace, fasten the wet rawhide around the bowl. Tie a big knot at one end of the shoelace so it won't slip through the hole. Pass the lace through opposite holes, going back and forth underneath and keeping the lace as taut as possible. When you're finished, tie a knot and leave the drum to dry. As the leather dries, it will shrink, making a taut drumhead.

When the drum is dry, you can color the leather and the wood with markers.

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