Marc Steuben is teaching his students the art of making a Taiko drum.
His first task is to find a suitable drum, here he’s using a Western drum which will be quite different when he’s completed the project. The outside of the drum will be covered with wood slats or a wood finish.
He soaks cowhide in water overnight and stretches it over special made metal rings.
He teaches the students the correct tension for the wet leather and as it dries it will shrink making the perfect drum head.
Here is one of the drum heads and you can see the brand on the hide.
Mark has devised a special stretcher for his drum heads.
Note how he carefully uses a water bottle as a level to make sure he gets the tension even around the entire surface. 😄 he actually forgot his level and was improvising quite clever!
He then drills 10 or 12 holes around the edges and puts a screw through both top and bottom to further hold the leather in place as it dries.
Done for the day. To be continued……….
sanseilife 