August  2025 -

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 At our August  Patch meeting, we will be making a Shekere
You'll need to bring:
if you don't already have your gourd, you will need a gourd with a narrow enough neck to allow you to hold it.  It will need to be a rather thick gourd, not a thin one to withstand the beading/shaking, etc. 
  You will want to clean it out - removing the seeds, and decorate it if you wish with ink, woodburning, etc.     

Materials you will need:

Nylon or Hemp Cord.  NO Cotton cord.  If you use Nylon, you will need to fuse the ends of each cord with a small lighter.   Your cord should be small enough to fit through your bead, but thick enough to fill or nearly fill your bead.

Beads - you can use wooden, plastic, shells, or glass.  Consider the thickness of the gourd if you are using heavy beads.  You will need 700-1000 beads, or more, depending on the size of the gourd, and your design.  

Scissors
Also, you might want to bring some thin super glue that can easily penetrate the knots you will be making, so that they can't loosen on you.   

Consider too, bringing a large towel or something you can sort of make a "nest" out of for the gourd to rest in as you are going to need to use both hands for the stringing of the beads and making knots, and that round gourd, with beads on it, can become quite precarious to try to keep positioned in your lap without something to help keep it still and not prone to flying off onto the floor. 
 

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​The image below is one of a gourd I found on the internet.  You can google for more ideas too

 

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