14" Red Elk Hide Drum
Handcrafting each one of these drums is a labor of love and reflects in the quality of sound and beauty. This drum is special because it was made using steam bent cedar by a local artist and the quality is excellent!
Cedar: "In traditional Northwest Coastal Indian culture, every part of this tree has a designated use — from shelter, transportation and weapons to tools, clothing and art. Coastal tribes used its wood to construct massive post-and-beam houses, spectacular totem poles, dramatic dance masks and extraordinary dugout canoes. In fact, the western redcedar is so well known for this particular use that it is often referred to as the “canoe cedar.” They wove its inner bark into patterned mats, plied it into rope and worked it to make water-repellent clothing. And from its root fiber, they wove watertight baskets. For all these products, the Northwest Coast Indians came to refer to the cedar as “Tree of Life” and “Life Giver.” http://www.americanforests.org/
Elk: Elk have stamina, Strength, Nobility, Elk teaches us how to pace ourselves.
Making the drums red:
I dye all of my drums using a combination of beet and pomegranate juice that I extract, and then I add a secret recipe of several different herbs and natural pigments and allow the skins to sit so that they soak up as much color as possible. It is said that Pomegranate and beet juices were among the first plant dyes used in ancient times.
*Each drum is handcrafted to order, comes with a drum stick, and will take 1-3 days to be crafted and shipped out.*