At some point I FB liked a certain Yoga studio in central NJ. One day, a build-your-own-drum event (no, there’s no typos in there) they posted came across my feed. I’d never specifically wanted a drum, but when I looked up Djembes (one of the types you could build), and thought about how much I could annoy my neighbor with one, I signed-up.

Then I realized I needed a design.

After a week of plodding through different ideas, I settled on earth goddess. With the drum’s shape, I could have her sitting cross-legged on the base, arms out but down-ish, and her hair could flair-up and over the ‘cup’.

Off to Google images I went, but I typically loathe leveraging publically-listed art for anything personal. I didn’t want to draw it myself, though, so reached-out to several artists I know. My friend Rachel answered the call, and had me a sketch in less than twenty-four hours, even though she was on vacation! The finished commission is perfect, so I thought I’d toss it up here:

I know, right? Bad-ass.

My plan was to stain the wood an oak brown , sketch the shapes, use a Dremel to engrave the drawing to create a negative image (light lines on dark background), and then seal the whole thing with clear coat.

Now for the bad news. The event was rescheduled to a late October weekend for which I already have plans, so no drum :(. Still, I have an awesome piece of art to show for the whole thing, and a new Dremel I need to find a purpose for (anyone wanna buy a Dremel?).

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}