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Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:50pm

How to Paint Native American Drums

While selecting a personal drum that is painted is easiest for most people, it can also be very fulfilling to customize a drum yourself, to get creative and express yourself on your drum in a way that pleases you.

From time to time people interested in hand drums for drumming circles as well as for rustic southwest or western home decorating ask about how to decorate their drums. Some add feathers and beads especially if the drum is purely decorative. Throughout history Native Americans have also decorated their drums with paint originally made using natural dyes from nature. In modern times advanced paints have become the medium of choice.

Painting an Indian drum is pretty straight forward. There is really no preparation necessary, but for the best finish, some people sand the hide first, but it’s not necessary. You don't have to and most people usually don't. An exception to this might be if there are patches of hair left on the hide. Most people like the look thinking it adds character but if it causes a problem it can be trimmed with a straight edge razor blade and sanded smooth with fine sand paper.

Different types of drums have different types of hides with various thicknesses. Hand drums are made using goat skin rawhide and floor and pow wow drums can be made using cowhide. Rawhide is different than tanned leather. Rawhide is affected by moisture and humidity. For example if you put the drum in water, the hide will turn soft again, then when removed will dry and be rigid again. This character of rawhide plays a part in considering how to paint a hand drum. With heavy hide, it takes a lot more moisture to affect the drum than a thin goat skin rawhide drum.

It is possible to paint a drum using water based paints such a acrylic or latex but the brush strokes need to be few and light because the water in the paint will begin to soften the hide. If you apply a thick coat of water paint you will see the hide begin to sag from the moisture. When it dries completely it will be fine again. For that reason and for durability most people who choose to paint their drums choose to use oil based paint. Artist oils give you a wide range of color choices and can be thinned to give the appearance of a wash or transparent look, popular in spirit painting. Or, you can use it thicker for an opaque look like in Northwest and Eskimo drums, depending on what you want to accomplish in your design.

Some people add a finish coat of clear over the paint or wax to make the colors more vivid and to help protect the art work, but others leave the finished painting just as it is. Oil paint will also have a tendency to have a longer drying time on rawhide than on canvas and should be allowed to slowly air dry. Otherwise, painting a Native drum is basically the same as painting on other surfaces. The texture of rawhide is different but as you begin to paint and get a feel for the brush on the rawhide drum surface you will quickly see how to best control the brush to achieve the look you want and will soon realize that most techniques used in painting on other surfaces will work on rawhide as well. Remember, to have fun and enjoy painting your new drum.
© Copyright Mission Del Rey

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:49pm

POND BUILDING

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:48pm

Layout of a medicine wheel

Medicine wheels were built by laying out stones in a circular pattern that often looked like a wagon wheel lying on its side. The wheels could be large, reaching diameters of 75 feet (23 metres) or more.

Medicine wheels were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center cairn of stones, and surrounding that would be an outer ring of stones, then there would be "spokes," or lines of rocks, coming out the cairn. However, there are many variations in how a medicine wheel may be laid out.

Definition of a medicine wheel

John Brumley, an archaeologist from Medicine Hat, has provided a very exacting definition of what constitutes a medicine wheel. He notes that a medicine wheel consists of at least two of the following three traits:
(1) a central stone cairn
(2) one or more concentric stone circles, and/or
(3) two or more stone lines radiating outward from a central point.

Almost all medicine wheels would have at least two of the three elements mentioned above (the center cairn, the outer ring, and the spokes), but beyond that there were many variations on this basic design, and every wheel found has been unique and has had its own style and eccentricities.

The most common deviation between different medicine wheels are the number of spokes.

There is no set number of spokes for a medicine wheel to have. The spokes within each wheel are rarely evenly spaced out, or even all the same length. Some medicine wheels will have one particular spoke that's significantly longer than the rest, suggesting something important about the direction it points.

Another variation is whether the spokes start from the center cairn and go out only to the outer ring, or whether they go past the outer ring, or whether they start at the outer ring and go out from there.

An odd variation sometimes found in medicine wheels is the presence of a passageway, or a doorway, in the circles. The outer ring of stones will be broken, and there will be a stone path leading up to the center of the wheel.

Also many medicine wheels have various other circles around the outside of the wheel, sometimes attached to spokes or the outer ring, and sometimes just seemingly floating free of the main structure.

They are made by placing rocks down into a circle shape, and four lines or more of rocks are put down across the circle, or near the circle.

Medicine wheels are very similar to circular turtle shaped petroforms with the legs, head, and tail pointing out the directions and sometimes aligned with astronomical events. Usually, the top of the medicine wheel is pointing towards the rising sun.

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:48pm

Is your dog a fence-jumper? Try paw-proofing the top of your fences with a PVC 'roller bar' which dog paws can't hold onto.

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:47pm

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:46pm

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:45pm

Making The Atlatl

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:45pm

Save Your Paintbrushes!
7 tips to help you dodge a paintbrush predicament.

When a friend and I finished painting some wood trim at her new house, I offered to clean both brushes. We chuckled at the contrast in the bristles and shot this photo as a visual example of the contrast in our personalities. She is the artful one who gets things done efficiently and doesn’t get hung up on technique. I am a rules person, cautious (and, OK, maybe a bit of a control freak). My friend asked what she could do to achieve similar results (with the condition of the brush – as well as the paint job). She may or may not try all of these tips.

Start with a good quality brush. Seriously. And I am not selling brushes; it’s just a fact that a better-built brush applies paint more smoothly and precisely, and it cleans up more easily and lasts longer. Much longer.)
Choose the correct brush for the finish: synthetic for water-base paints and natural bristles for oil-base.
Lightly moisten the bristles before dipping them in paint (using water for water-base finishes and mineral spirits for oil-base coatings). This “quenches” the bristles so the paint won’t cling so tightly to them.
Use only the tips of the bristles. Take shallow dips into paint! Yes, it’s tempting to pick up more paint per dip, but it’s a pain to get the paint out of the ferrule end of the bristles when you’re finished.
Rather than scraping excess paint off the brush tips on the edge of the paint container, just tap the tips of the bristles into the side of the container.
Give the brush a break when you take a break. Although you can store a tightly wrapped brush in a cool place overnight, it’s best to just clean the brush between each coat.
When you wash the brush, use a brush comb and apply a little soap that you have lathered in your hands. Rinse until the water (or solvent) is clear, then dry and wrap the bristles for storage.

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:44pm

Making Regalia – How to Construct Leather Belts

Comment by Chief Walks on December 28, 2017 at 11:44pm

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