A Month of Love: Drums

I have fond and not so fond memories surrounding each of my drums. Fond includes the joy I experience when drumming. Not-so-fond includes the process of choosing the hide and in the case of my Buffalo Hide Drum, the stringing.

My first - untreated deer hide - see the picture?

How to make a drum? First you get a hide. My first drum had an untreated deer hide. What that meant was it wasn’t bleached so when wet (which is an essential part of drum making) it smelled. And that would still be true if it got wet.

The night before you want to make your drum, you soak it. Back then I had a bathtub. OMG: the next morning the house smelled like wet deer hide (think wet doggy smell permeating your entire house).

My elk hide drum painted by Heather Jeffris

Since I was making this drum with the other women in my circle, I managed to get my hide into a large plastic bag and out to the car. Wet hides are Heavy! Driving with my windows down (you can guess why), I made it the thirty minute drive to our meeting place.

What followed was the process of making a drum. We each had a wooden frame, marked and cut the hide to fit the frame plus a couple of inches. Next came making the “string” which entailed cutting the hide into a long, narrow strip – yards long!

Buffalo hide drum

After punching the holes in the hide at the prescribed intervals, we began the stringing process. The first time we do anything has its challenges and this was no exception. Finishing the stringing, making the handhold did not mean the drum was complete.

It had to dry. The hide stretch tight across the frame before the true sound of the drum come to life.

Since that first drum, I’ve made several more.

I’ve an elk hide drum and that hide was large enough that my friend and I both have a drum from the same hide.

I’ve a horse hide drum and, again, my friend and I have drums from the same hide. 

Horse - my great granddaughter's favorite

The last drum I made for myself was the Buffalo Hide Drum. My friend and I shared the hide and the drum making process. Our buffalo hide was thick and the holes closed up almost as fast as we made them. By the time we finished our hands were swollen but we were elated (although swore we’d never make another drum from buffalo hide).

My buffalo drum between the elk hide drums of my granddaughters

My granddaughters have drums made from the same deer hide. My best friend in Ohio made a drum from the same elk hide (we got 3 drums out of that one hide) as mine. I’ve had one drum painted by one of my circle sisters. The drum I take to Ceremonies and that gets played the most is my horse drum. It has the deepest tone and is also the biggest.

Sometimes there is no better medicine than picking up a drum and just beating it as hard or soft, as fast or slow as we want until whatever drove me to start in the first place is gone.

For other ideas of how healing drums can be, check out Hunter: The Dancer and The Drum. Hunter has learned that for her movement and the beat of a drum helps her find answers to problems and thus peace of mind.

What instrument or music helps soothe you in times of trouble?

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If you click on this link and leave your first name and email address, I will send you a Free Copy of Staying Sane in a Crazy World as soon as it is ready for publication. It isn’t a long book, under 10K words but it is chock full of information and ideas about how you can create your own personal Staying Sane Plan.

What’s the catch? I’d appreciate your writing a review and even telling your friends about these books but other than that, no catch. Be sure to mention in your review that you received the book free in return for an honest review.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshleyRomance.com

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© 2018 Judith Ashley

Meet Ashley and Hunter

Judith is the author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual practices that nourish the soul and celebrates the journey from relationship to romance.

This week you get to know Ashley Ann Carlyle Kenner and Hunter Knight Compton as well as read more about my writing journey. Enjoy!

Ashley: Dragonflies and Dreams

Darkness threatens Ashley’s life as she once again faces a battle with breast cancer. The only light? Her children, the unconditional support of her women’s circle and dragonflies. But is it enough for her to win back her life and find unconditional love?

How do we keep going when all seems lost? How do we keep going when the odds are against us? How do we accept support and love when our youth and beauty fades, when we are ravaged with disease?

Writing about recurrent breast cancer took some research and soul searching. I’ve had cancer and also had breast cancer scares. Read more about my own journey in “Writing Ashley’s Story.” 

Where do the dragonflies come into the picture? Ashley must call upon her personal totems the dragon and damselflies to find the light in the darkness of her life. When you finish reading Ashley: Dragonflies and Dreams you’ll have a new appreciation for the power of belief.  

Hunter: The Drum and The Dancer

From the moment Hunter felt the first flutter of life, her actions have focused on her daughter’s safety. She’s created a good life for them doing what she loves—dancing. When her past shows up at her dance studio, she risks losing her daughter forever.

Where do we find the courage to confront our past and our mistakes? How do we move past doubts to know with a certainty we can trust another? And what about ourselves? What price do we pay when we doubt our every decision?

Check out “Dancing With Hunter” to see how I wrote a story that had little basis in my own life. A leap of faith was needed more often than not!

And I love Hunter’s cover. The drum reminds me of my own horse drum – one I made with my own hands from a horse hide. The sound reverberates through me and sometimes I just drum for the pure please of feeling the beat in my bones.

Sign up for Connections, my newsletter, and download a free e-copy of Lily.

Learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series on my website.

Follow Judith on Twitter: @JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.


You can also find Judith on FB!

Sacred Women's Circles Create Sacred Space - Part Two

Judith is the author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic fiction that honors spiritual practices that nourish the soul and celebrates the journey from relationship to romance.

When you are reading this post, I’ll be on my way home from the Desert Dreams Writers Conference. Look for more about my time there next Monday, June 12^th.

Last week I talked about women’s circle and Sacred Women’s Circles. Today I want to share more about them.

In addition to my own Sacred Women’s Circle, I also participate in the Women of the 14^th Moon Celebrations. This truly is a Sacred Women’s Circle. My first one had 100 women in attendance. There was no judgement. No one looked at another woman and thought she should have put on her make-up, worn a different blouse, was too tall, too thin, too fat, etc. (We were camping out in a large field with port-a-potties, tents, no electricity, etc.). I was fifty-three and so was a ‘crone’, a wise woman. I was taken care of. If I needed to use the port-a-potty, I got escorted to the front of the line.

The horse hide drum I made and use at 14th Moon

Same for meals. The crones were always first. The singing and drumming was amazing. But what was even more magical was the time in the evening when each crone was invited to stand and talk to the other women. We could say whatever we wanted to say and talk for however long we wanted. To this day I remember what I talked about, how surreal it felt to have 99 other women listen to me.

Is it any wonder that after over 20 years of being a part of women’s circles and Sacred Women’s circles they are a constant theme a major thread in my stories?

The stories in The Sacred Women’s Circle series follows the seven members of The Circle as they face life’s challenges including the scariest of all—the love of their life. They battle themselves as they find the courage to grasp what they want without the certainty they’ll reach that goal. Even seeing the other women find their happily-ever-after, does not mean the next circle member believes it can happen to her.

Lily, Elizabeth, Diana, Ashley, Hunter, Gabriella and Sophia are stories about independent women who’ve weathered many of life’s challenges. Domestic violence, infidelity, divorce, single parenting, custody battles, abandonment issues, child abuse, death of a spouse, recurrent cancer treatment are the main themes but in addition, each woman must also face her own inner demons.

With the support of her Circle sisters and using her own personal spiritual practices, each finds her way through the ups and downs, doubts and fears to her own happiness.

One of my goals in writing this series is to show readers the options they have both in terms of spiritual practices but also in the support that can come in the form of a woman’s circle.

Some of my readers who have a different spiritual or religious background still enjoy my stories because of the way these friends interact. It has given them a new view of their own relationships and some have made the decision to form their own Sacred Women’s Circle.

I’m here to support and cheer you on regardless of the direction you go.

Please leave a comment. I do want to know your thoughts, especially about what it would be like to be a part of a Sacred Women’s Circle.

And if you’ve not read any of The Sacred Women’s Circle series you can easily see if you’d like to read them all by reading Book One Lily: The Dragon and The Great Horned Owl.

Signup for Connections, my newsletter, and download a free e-copy of Lily.

Learn more about The Sacred Women’s Circle series on my website.

Follow Judith on Twitter:@JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB!