A Nyabinghi drum

Monday our crafting club gathered together. We all seemed a bit excited about starting with a new project, but first our attention went to Wil who's got a birthday coming up (today, actually ^^).
Since we'd had just discussed the idea of doing birthday swaps last week and the other three'll have our birthdays still coming up later this year, we'd decided to start right away :)

Since I know Will loves reggae and Jamaica, I had chosen to make this Nyabinghi drum;

Photo from the internet.

I painted a wine cork with Gesso (primer).

Using masking tape to hopefully get straight lines.

Which worked better than I hoped.

I like the structure of the cork coming through.

I used a piece of very thin leather as drum head.

Which I carefully aged while it was pinned in place before
I glued it to the cork.

Juvie, our little house-elf, got curious when
 she saw those bright colours and
wanted to try drumming.

Floral wire and silver beads were used
for the final touches.

I think Wil liked it as much as Juvie did :)

The mosaic table was a gift from Jolinda and
Monique got Will the other things shown.

Before finally starting crafting, we ate some fruit cake ('vlaai') that Monique served us. So all in all I think we've started a nice new tradition ;)