Like most projects, this one also begins with a series of decisions. Your drum is made up of four elements:

	Hides
	Rim
	Stand
	Drumsticks

You will need to decide what materials to use for each of these, and then find a source. You may need to track down wood and skins by word of mouth, or word of "mouse" (over the internet).

Some of the materials may be close at hand. Perhaps an old tree made a giveaway and the body of your drum will be carved from a slice of its trunk. Maybe a companion animal--a horse or cow--went back to the Spirit World and left a beautiful hide behind for you to use.

Hides

Most likely, you will be buying hides. In choosing the kind of animal skin to be used, remember that it will need to be large--and tough, like cow, horse, elk, or buffalo.

Rim

The "rim" is the part of the drum that you stretch the the hides over. A Mother Drum is a very large frame drum, meaning it is very wide, but shallow.

Think of a round cake and you have the shape of a frame drum. The frame is really just a big circle made out of something strong, like thin planks of wood, wrapped into a circle and glued (laminated) together.

You may want to make your own rim, or to purchase one ready-made.

Stand

Are you going to play the drum in the traditional powwow style (sitting down) or standing up? I have two different stands to use one way or the other, depending on the situation.

The "low" stand is good for grown-ups to sit around, or for little kids to play while standing up. If everyone else in the circle is sitting on the floor, you will probably want to have a low stand.

Sometimes it feels like sitting around a campfire, to sit around a Mother Drum and talk awhile-drum awhile.

A "tall" stand is nice if you want to drum standing up. This gives you the ability to move more freely--even dance--around the drum while playing. 

With a tall stand, you can also lie underneath the drum. A classroom of autistic kids I used to drum with came up with this idea, and since then, I have used it in a number of healing circles. Powerful! 

Drumsticks

You may want to make a set of sticks for your drum, so that everyone has the same kind to use when they play together. Again, you may have materials at hand, and they may have added, special meaning to you because of it.

My first set of sticks were made of chokecherry, from a bush that had been cut down without regard by someone with a big, noisy machine. That chokecherry bush is still dancing in a set of drumsticks, many years after it has ceased to bear any other fruit.

You may also want to decorate your sticks with paint, beads, or leather of special colors. You have a lot of choices.