| Notice I said different drum. I didn't say better drum. A perfectly
good drum can be made with a coffee can and you can find out how to do
it on the D page if you need
instructions. This drum is not perfectly good. It is, in fact,
tragically flawed. It is also MINDBLOWINGLY irritating to make. However,
if you are like me, and you have it in your little head that you have to
make a drum with a wooden frame, then you're in the right place. You're
not in the right place to find out how to make a good drum with a wooden
frame, but you're in the right place in the sense that here we all are
with our hopes and aspirations.
To replicate what you see below, you will need: A circle of fabric, 28 inches in diameter. If you were smart, you would substitute a squared off styrofoam wreath form. You would also substitute basswood or any other kind of wood that's not balsa wood for the balsa wood I used against all recommendations from my wiser friends. Also, I'm sure there are much faster and better ways to do what I've done, but I'm just telling you what I did. It's up to you to improve on it. Start by soaking your wood in the tub in hot water. If you can steam it in some professional and effective way, go for it. Get it so you can bend it. Bend it around into a circle and cram it inside the styrofoam wreath form. Use four paper clamps to keep the ends from sticking out. Let it dry for a good long time. Pop the wood out of the wreath frame and it should retain its shape. Scribble some wood glue in the overlap (should be about four inches if you're using the stuff I said above) and put it back in the wreath form. Reclamp. Wait. Pop the wood out of the wreath frame and set it aside. Now you're going to "upholster" the wreath frame so that it's wrapped in fabric and has a sort of mushroomy top.
Here's a picture that may help you figure out what I mean. It's pretty impossible to describe the process of wrapping the wreath form. When you've got your mushroom, cram it down over the wood frame. Try to make it smooth, but realize that you're never going to get it perfectly smooth, not in this lifetime.
Here's what it should look like when it's been rammed down. Now, a smart person might wrap the fabric the opposite way so that when you put it on the frame, the fabric was lying down flush with the side and going under the wreath form, instead of sticking out from the side to go around it. This would however make it so that the wrong side of the fabric was visible either wrapped around the wreath or on the top, and I wanted to use printed fabric, so I did it this way. If you used plain fabric, however, you could paint it before modge-podging, and that would be very cool. When you've pushed it down as far as you can, run a bead of glue around underneath and push it down just a little farther, and leave it to dry.
A word on fabric: I used the skin print, which was a softer fabric, and the zigzag, which was stiffer. The skin print made a smoother curve around the wreath form, and was easier to cram in between the wood and the form. However, it made a floppier drum. The zigzag made a lot of lumps around the curve of the wreath form, but it also was much tighter and better at the end.
Now it's time to use the Modge-Podge. Benny and I painted all over all the fabric. Then we let it dry. This next part is possibly the most irritating thing I have ever done. Please remember, before you proceed, that when you are finished you WILL NOT HAVE A GOOD DRUM. It will not even be attractive, probably. It will probably be floppy and since it is made of balsa wood your child will probably break it in five minutes. Best to stop now and live the rest of your life happy. If you feel it's necessary to proceed, then breathe deeply and pick up your yarn. Cut off a reasonable amount, maybe four feet. Tie a small loop in one end, and stick the other end through the loop, then pull it through until you have a loop that you can put around the top of the drum and tighten. The idea here is to take some of the floppiness out of the part between the rim and the wreath form. Getting it started is the worst, and may cause you to age or possibly die. A tack will help anchor the yarn, if you're desperate. Once you get it started, wind it around a bunch of times, then Modge-Podge again over the top and the yarn, and let it dry. Paint the parts of the wood that are visible, and you're done!
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