The entire process in making djembes requires tedious works, high level of accuracy, and craftsmanship. All should be put in place from the process of raw materials selection until artistic finishing touch.
Raw Materials Selection and Preparation
The main raw materials are: Mahogany wood logs (botanical name: Toona sureni), rawhide from goatskin, and strong synthetic ropes. Mahogany wood logs should be dried in a high temperature kiln so that the moisture content is reduced and all inhabitant pests are destroyed. The logs size should be selected according to the size of djembe which will be made of.
Goblet-shaped Body Forming
By using high precision wood lathe machine, the Mahogany log is now transformed as goblet-shaped body for djembe. The body of djembe needs to be sanded to make smooth surfaces. If necessary, at this stage, wood carving artists will do their tasks to make nice carving decoration on the djembe body. Then, the body of djembe will be polished to make it looks shiny.
Here is where the craftsmanship takes place. In this process, goatskin rawhide is mounted to the body with series of ropes to tighten it up. Stress balancing on every inch of goatskin at the top of djembe is quite challenging work.
Carving the djembe:
Djembe in the warehouse:
Djembe with painting decoration.
Djembe making video.