All of my drums are made entirely by me. The drum shells, based on the Djembe and Doumbek designs, are wheel thrown and altered. It takes a week sometimes 2 for each drum shell to dry, which gives me time to prep the goat hides. I remove the hair from the hides by hand (NO CHEMICALS) this ensures that the dyes are going to take evenly and there will be no weak spots or cuts from shaving and chemical hair removers. Once the hair is removed, I tie-dye or marble dye the goat hide in combinations of bright opaque, fluorescent, and glow in the dark dyes that make for nice effects under the black lights of some good ol' coffee house drum circles. Once the hides are ready I've got to have 3 steel rings bent into perfect circles, 2 for clamping the skin to the top of the drum, and one smaller hoop for the bottom. I custom bend each and every hoop, weld and grind the welds. The hoops are then wrapped in cloth, so they don't harm the drums and they also make nice bumpers during those accidental tippings. Now it's back to the drum shell. It has to be bisque fired which removes nearly all the water from the clay but leaves it porous enough to accept the glazes and decoration. After it's bisqued, the glaze is applied and the drum is allowed to dry so that it can be fired to it's final state. Now is where the drum shell, the goat skin, and the 3 rings play their parts. Using a high strength low stretch, mountain climbing cord and an ancient lacing technique called the Mali weave, the parts are finally laced together creating one uniquely individual drum, which can be professionally tuned by me and many other drummers and drum builders around the world.