December 4-6, 2026

Open Hearts Sanctuary Retreat Center

8710 Cleburne Hwy

Granbury Tx, 76049 

This is not simply a weekend of learning how to make a drum.

I have been making hide drums for more than 35 years. This event is the result of requests to help others to properly make their ceremonial drums. I have held drum workshops before. This is the first time that I take you through the ceremonial and spiritual aspects of creating/birthing your own drum. I am excited to share this time and knowledge with you. 

From the moment we gather, we will begin creating a relationship with the materials that will eventually become your drum. Through Earth Ways, elemental awareness, intention, sound, quiet reflection and time together, we will allow the making of the drum itself to become part of the ceremony.

You will be guided step by step through the physical process of creating your own traditional hide drum. No previous drum-making experience is necessary.

Throughout our weekend, we will explore the drum far beyond the physical process of creating one.

We will spend time with the history of the drum and its presence across cultures and throughout human history—from simple frame drums and hand drums to the extraordinary variety of drums that have developed around the world.

We will explore some of the many ways drums have been used: for music and celebration, communication and storytelling, gathering and ceremony, meditation and altered states of awareness, movement, healing practices and simply bringing people together through rhythm.

We will also explore the relationship between rhythm and the body.

You don't need to consider yourself musical to experience a drum. Rhythm is already familiar to us. We entered this world listening to a heartbeat.

I will share some of the ways I have incorporated drums into my own work and experiences over the years, and we will experiment with different ways of listening, sounding and responding to rhythm.

This isn't about learning the “right” way to play a drum.

It is about discovering what happens when you begin developing a relationship with your own. And, of course, woven throughout all of this is the heart of our weekend: You will birth a drum of your own.

Preparing the Materials

Part of birthing a drum is working with materials that were once living.

We will take time to acknowledge the hide, the wood and the natural elements involved in creating the drum. The hide must be soaked and prepared before it can be worked, giving us an opportunity to slow down rather than rush toward the finished creation.

Throughout the weekend I will share some of my Earth Ways, simple practices of connection with Earth, the elements and the natural world and invite you to discover your own relationship with the materials in your hands.

The Waiting

A newly created hide drum needs time to dry.

Rather than treating that time as an interruption, it becomes part of our weekend.

While our drums rest, we will have space for Earth & Elemental Wisdom, conversation, quiet reflection, connection with the land, sound and other experiential practices that naturally complement the weekend.

There will also be room simply to be.

Not every moment needs to be filled.

Meeting the Voice of Your Drum

There comes a wonderful moment when a newly created drum has dried enough to be played. Until then, you don't really know its voice. Unfortunately, the drum will not be dry before you leave as we are doing this in the winter. Still, you will get a feel for it. 

Two drums created from similar materials can sound entirely different. The size of the frame, the hide, its thickness, the tension and the hands that created it all contribute to the instrument that emerges.

We will explore rhythm and sound, not from the perspective of musical performance, but through listening and relationship.

We will learn what happens when you strike a drum? What do you feel in your body? 

What happens when several individually created drums begin sounding together?

There is nothing you need to perform and nothing you need to get right.

Then you will take this knowledge home with you for when your drum is dry enough to hear. Then you meet the drum you created.

Closing Our Weekend

We will close our time together in circle, honoring what has been created and experienced.

You will leave carrying something tangible, a hide drum made with your own hands.

But my hope is that you will also leave with something less tangible: a deeper relationship with sound, Earth, the elements, your own hands and your ability to create with intention.

Your drum does not need anyone else to give it meaning.

You were there when it came into being.