My birthday was this weekend and my husband gave me some gourds and some goatskin rawhide pieces so we could make a gourd drum! I already have forgotten the exact details, but sometime in March we somehow came across a mention of a gourd drum and were instantly intrigued. We liked the idea of being able to make a drum without having to shape or acquire a wooden circle for the base. We liked how gourds are used throughout the world for musical instruments and how they have a long legacy through history. My husband bought the hides and gourds from two different sellers on etsy. We used instructions from the very helpful Arizona Gourds website (hides are very inexpensive from this site as well). We did use a small wooden embroidery hoop to secure the lacing rather than a metal ring and it worked just fine.
We had tons of fun and felt very successful. We already bought some gourd seeds to plant this year and now we’re even more excited to plant them. In the future, I would like to make one using a bigger gourd. I’d also like to experiment with dyeing the gourd and hide both purple and making an amethyst drum!
