Sewing a drum (luŋa) head:  image gallery

Materials for sewing a drum:  the carved drum itself, goat skins, the reeds from the woven mat and the raffia grasses (kpari) for the rings to seat the drumhead on the mouth (lun’ kuɣra), a finished ring, the melon (yɔɣli) that softens the skins, the strings (lundihi) for lacing the drum

The reeds for the ring of the drumhead are stripped from a woven mat.  Then they are split and shaved to the proper width and thickness.

The grasses are soaked in a pot to soften them for wrapping the reeds.  A stone keeps them submerged.This sized pot can also serve to soak the skins.

The ring of reeds is measured to fit each mouth of each particular drum.  There is a slight allowance for the width of the grasses that will bind the ring as it is built up.

The ring is gradually built up by wrapping the reeds with the grasses.

The finished ring fits snugly on the drum.  Also shown are an appropriately sized drum stick (lundoli) and the leather strings (lundihi) used to lace the sewn drumhead.  The red leather string is made from goat skin, and the white is made from the skin of bush animals.  A leather string is also used to bind the neck of the drum stick to the body of the stick.

To make the drum head, a dry skin is scraped to remove most of the hair.

Wet skins are further cleaned and prepared by soaking in a mixtures of ashes, water, and the inside of a type of melon.

After cleaning, the best part of the skin is fitted to the ring.

The skin is lightly laced around the edges to hold it in place while it is stitched with the lundi' sherga.

Holes are punched with an awl along the outer edge of the ring of reeds and grass.

Moving around the head with an awl and the thin leather string:  the sewing string is threaded through the same hole.  Then a loop is formed by pulling the string against the awl.

When the sewing is finished, the excess skin is trimmed away.

The skin is cleaned, scraped, and smoothed with a curved blade.

The outside of the head is also scraped and cleaned.  The skin on the finished head is very smooth and thin.  The remaining part of the sewing string will be trimmed off.

Making the strings:  A long strip is leather is cut at an appropriate thickness to make lacing strings (lundihi) or sewing strings (lundi' sherga).  A similar method is used to make the strings (gbandaa) for sewing a guŋgɔŋ or the string (chahirga) that vibrates across the guŋgɔŋ's drumhead.

One end of the string is tied while the string is rolled against a leg.

A long strip of goat-skin and the final finished goat-skin strings.

The fitted heads are then laced together through the loops made with the awl when sewing the skin onto the drumhead.