James's Final Project

Crafting Rhythms

About eighteen years ago, I hand carved three drum shells from reclaimed willow wood. I was living in Arlington, Texas and had taught art for about four years. Prior to becoming an art educator, I drummed for various bands in Waco and Austin. Being a new teacher, husband and father did not allow much time for a band, so I began playing hand drums. Through happenstance, I was contacted by a man who told me that he had seen my paintings in a gallery. He was also an artist and wondered if I would like to meet and talk. The man was from Nigeria and was a drummer. We became quick friends. After he helped me repair a talking drum I owned, I became determined to create my own drum. The process was labor intensive and somewhat technical, but in the end I had three different sounding drums. Around that time, I purchased a set of Moroccan bongos, which are ceramic with natural skin heads. Since then I have wanted to make a ceramic darbuka drum. Now that I had a potters wheel and kiln access, I was ready to make one.

I made a simple sketch of the drum shell that I wanted to create. I was not too concerned with decoration at first, but I wanted to make sure that the form was pleasing and that it produced a good sound. Darbuka's need to make a deep bass (DOUM) and a sharp treble strike (TEK).

I had not thrown a large form in a while and misjudged the amount of clay needed to pull the shell in one piece. I decided to create the upper bell and the lower cylinder separately and then combine them. It worked out well, and I ended up with a shell that had the basic size and proportions that I wanted.

There are many different traditional styles of goblet drums with ornamentation varying from simple color to elaborate patterns and inlay designs. I found myself leaning towards a more austere surface, using blue and black glazes to echo the shells structure and a loose, lavender glaze to contrast and incite feelings of improvisation.

Traditional darbukas have a goat skin drum head, so I purchased a 14 inch skin from Amazon to cover my 9 in diameter drum shell. The extra skin is needed to gather and tighten the head. Applying the head was the most time consuming part of the creation process. The skin had to be soaked in order for it to be pliable. During soaking, I prepared the cord, which is used to secure and tune the drum. The cord was three parts, a bottom ring of knotted loops, and a two part top system where one ringed cord holds the skin in place while a second pushes them down over the ceramic shell. Between the top and bottom a very long cord is strung through holes I punched in pairs around the skin. It travels down over the top cord, then to one of the bottom loops and back to the next punched pair. The process is repeated for each of the twelve knotted loops. Once all of the loops are connected, the slack is taken and the drum head is made taut. 

After tying the cord off, and braiding the extra to create a handle, the skin is allowed to dry overnight. I played the finished darbuka for several days, trying to find all of its voices and to decide if it needed further tuning. The drum had a good ringing bass and treble sound, plus various effect depending on how the head was struck or muffled. Overall, I was very pleased with the visual and functional character of the drum.

Having created something that is both visually exciting and useful is an powerful experience for me. The coursework of our craft class has helped me understand, through the history and struggles of other makers, why I am drawn to craft-work. The Makers book has given me a fuller knowledge of craft and its possibilities. As an artist, I have honed my resolve to explore those possibilities and as an educator, I will work to endear artistic and functional crafting to my students.