Items

The Festive Soul Drum

Category: Character Collectibles

"Make your mark, weave your story," the artisan says. "When the sky blooms with fire and the scales rain down, let the drums remind the world: we are still here, still singing."

 

The Festive Soul Drum is an item of great importance to celebrations on Isla Solara. Artisans of varying ways of life will travel great lengths to locate the archipelago and learn from the Master Artisans that reside on the mainlands. Every decision and piece of the creation process is attuned to the foxes soul  with the guidance of Master Artisans.

Below is an infographic on parts of the drum for your reference when creating your own for the Drum the Path Prompt, and an example of a colored rendition.

 

The Festive Soul Drum Infographic

 
    A
    The frame of the drum. Created from wood harvested from native felled trees on the island (Tideroot Bark Peel). Its thin yet sturdy structure is similar to bamboo, yet retains a strong porosity for staining with harvested pigments and minerals from Geode lake. Sizing of each drum is custom done by a skilled artisan, then left in the sun to dry out the wood once set up in a tight wrapping of twine. 
 
    B
    The customization of the drum. Traditional imagery of the ocean and the Lord of Plenty are chiseled and filed into the dried and hardened ring of wood with skilled pressure and technique, or hand painted with brushes crafted from the hairs of local wildlife or plant fibers. Foxes can look to make their drums frame simple ombres or patterns, or paint in images of fireworks, floral accents, great riptides of the sea, and so on, in honor of the Lord of Plenty and Dipsi. These can also be imbued with imadry from ones places of great peace, or smooth churning wisp like structures to signify the flow of the soul into the drum. 
 
    C
    The skin of the drum. Large leaves are selected from local trees– sometimes trees outside of the fox’s home for personal meaning to one's soul– then gently scrubbed and brushed clean of their chlorophyll (Clear Tideroot Leaves). These are then carefully stretched out on the frames and left to dry in the sun for some time to harden. This creates a sturdy skin. Artisans will tend to these frames once every few hours, and stretch the leaves until they're oversized for the drums frame. If a leaf develops holes, foxes are to apply patches of excess dried skin with a sap-like glue, and once more set up to dry in the sun. Afterwards, the sap is then scraped thin to fit the thickness of the skin.
 
    D
    The framing pegs of the drum. To secure the skin alongside hand stitching it in place, these pegs will be whittled, hollowed, then placed along six key tension points of the frame. Foxes placing the skin atop the main drum will have a "lid like ring" to create a clean seal before hammering in wedged wooden pegs with a soft mallet and some glue to lock the skin in permanently. 
 

    E

    The sealing mark of the Festive Soul Drum. Once the skin is affixed and the drum is sealed up, leftover minerals will be mixed up with ash. The fox’s hand will be pressed into the mixture before striking the drum to test its sound! The leftover print will note the drum’s completion. A transparent thin coating will go atop the drum to seal the print. 
 
    F
    The sparkler sachets. These bundles are made from scrap leftover dried leaf from the initial drum skin making process (Tideroot Satchet Base). They are gently rehydrated then formed into small bundles, dried again, then filled with Volatile Shell powder. It’s then stitched closed with twine, and hung along a hemp line attached to either side of the lowest sitting drum pegs. When it is time to perform the festival's main dance, foxes light the very bottom tassel and dance in harmony with the townsfolks clapping and lead. A glittering array of bright passion dances along with the fox until the entire line is burnt. These can be replaced and refilled every year. Older drums, or the original ceremony drum, will show minimal to no color and are often near full black at the bottom half of the drum rim and along the skin. They seem to carry a faint mist like aura to them, and feel colorful to the soul even though dulled.
 
    G
    The ignition tassel. These tassels are spun and pulled by harvesting floating seed puffs that dance across the island. They are then dyed and bundled up for personalized tassel making (Plume Puff Threads). These tassels are highly flammable and make a great ignition point to set off the sparkler sachets. Foxes will make their tassels with a leading artisan, choosing colors that reflect their physical form/pallet typically as a metaphor of one's person being the ignition to a passionate soul housed within.

 

    How are the minerals applied to the drum?

    They can be turned into strongly saturated pastes to permeate tougher materials with the mix of refined clays (Fireroot Powder. Amberflare Powder, and or Sungleam Powder)
 
These pastes can be applied in various ways, such as:
  •     Semi-viscous paints for detailed application.
  •     Staining embroidered or stitched in areas.
  •     Ombre dip-dying
 
    The minerals can also be milled down into fine powders and smudged on, leaving ample amounts of visual texture in its finish!

 

How to Obtain:

• Drum the Path Prompt ( Artisan Recipe - Festive Soul Drum )

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