Roping The Djembe

Rope the Top Ring

Begin with the top ring. I find the middle by folding and the just slip the two ends around the ring back. over the top and down through the center fold. If it looks weird for you, try flipping the ring over. It should look like the knot on the left here. I start in the middle and work first one way (to the right here), and then the other (to the left). It is a rope handling trick so you handle as little rope as possible as you work. So take the right hand rope. go over the ring from the outside, and as you come around go through the loop of rope that the connection to the first know left. Here I'm about to go through that loop Note I am pushing a loop of rope through, then I pull the rest through.

Cradle Pattern

Now I have snugged the first knot tight (left) and leaving the width of two fingers, have snugged the first half of the second tight. I am about to complete the second knot by following the black lines and going behind and under the ring, and again through the through the loop just made by that action. That is the pattern:
Over the ring, through the loop
Under the ring, through the loop.

Spacing

I keep them nicely snugged as I go, 1.5 to 2 fingers apart. You will need to adjust them when you meet with each end on the far side. I've found you can always pull them, a little tighter to space them more, and it is easy to slide them closer together. These will stretch as you tune the drum, so no need to leave slack. The tension will make them slack!

Bottom Ring Wrap

I did twelve on to the right and found I was just under half way (and running out of rope. I reversed and started from knot One and went left. This mantra works:
Over the ring, through the loop
Under the ring, through the loop.
Here you see the end two knots, 24 in total and the ends stretched opposite directions where they meet. Now the beginning knot is actually in the middle of the far side, so know I renamed the knots now #24 on the left, #1 on the right. What I am going to do is thread the rope that leaves knot #24 headed right, and thread it all the way through, following the exact path, of knot #1. Then we'll take the end from knot # 1 and as it heads left, thread it all the way through knot # 24, following it's path. To do this we loosen both knots a little. I have tried to color code the ropes to make it easier to follow. You end up with a "double" cradle rope where they join.

First Double Cradle Knot

We are looking at knot #1 which is marked in purple. We take the rope that heads to the right from Knot #24 (marked red)and follow the purple path... First up through the small horizontal center piece of the knot, in front of, over, and around the back of the ring and through the left side loop. Then you can see here I am about to parallel the center piece and go through the right side loop...and then follow the red path and come up behind the ring, over and down through the center...Phew, that is scary!

Loosely Snug Knot

Here is a close up of the knot 24's end threading to the right through # 1's path. Don't tighten it yet, once you get it. Note; my hands have glue residue from wrapping the rings with cloth, They aren't actually that bad!

Start Second Double Cradle Knot

Here is a close up of the knot 24's end threading to the right through # 1's path. Don't tighten it yet, once you get it. Note; my hand s have glue residue from wrapping the rings with cloth, They aren't actually that bad!

Finish Second Double Knot

Now take the purple marked rope and follow to the right the path of the the red rope till you come down through the center.

You got this!

One last task, to tighten it... Take the rope entering knot #24 from the left. Tug it so you know where it enters the knot and tighten it pulling right at each part...then follow it all the way through knot #1 taking all the slack right with you. Then take the rope entering knot #1 from the left and snug and move all the slack left...all the way through knot # 24.

Voila!

Hopefully your spacing is about the same as the other knots. If not, no worries, hey you did it! The beauty of this knot is it is self tightening (the tighter the pressure the tighter it grips) AND if you need to re-do the cradle you can untie this and you have a little extra rope here to use.
Now we do the bottom

Start Bottom Ring

Now we do the bottom ring the same way. "But it is so hard to work under the bowl, and everything is upside down", you say. do as pictured here, flip the drum upside down and now it works exactly as it did for the top ring. Same mantra:
Over the ring, through the loop
Under the ring, through the loop.

Bottom Ring Knot Spacing

You have determined the number of cradle ropes, 24 in this case with the top ring. You need 24 exactly in the bottom ring now. What I do is space them one finger apart here and then check after 1/4 of the number of knots I need(6 in this case). Am I just under a quarter way around the bottom ring?

Bottom Ring Double Cradle

Ok, yes I saved the hardest till last! Now you do the same self locking knot at the bottom. You have a little tighter work area but exactly the same process.

Snug it up!

See, I knew you could do it!

Note Drum is upside down here.

Line up any Ovals

The rope is all prepared, Note I lined up the two sets of cradle rope end tails so I can have a four rope skeleton for the handle later. I want to line up the spine with the design on the trumpet, so I have aligned the ovaled hide ring and then marked where the tail end spine of the hide will be aligned with electric tape. Once I get the skin tied on the hide ring I can just pull the tape off. The rope ring is just barely snug enough to hang there for this photo. Once the two layers of hide are between the rope ring and drum body it will be nicely snug. If I make one too tight or loose I try to adjust with rope size in the cradles... But then I have a stash of different sizes of rope.

Making draw string cuts at Hide Edge

The hide should have soaked for between 45 and 60 minutes prior in cool water before beginning this stage. I grab a piece of cardboard to use as a backer. In a pinch you can just carefully do this right on carpet or the lawn. here I use push pins to show you how i lay it out. The job is to put 16 1/4 long razor cuts parallel to the edge of the hide circle and about 1/4 in from the edge. I like to use a razor knife with the blade about half extended out, and the simple push it into the skin, Seem when you try to slice it you often end up with a two inch long slit that cuts through the edge! I first put cuts in the four quarters 12/3/6/9 o'clock positions. Then as shown with the push pin in the upper left quarter, I divide that in half with a cut and the divide each of those. Do that in each quarter and you have 16 evenly spaced slits.

How to Rope a Djembe