More art...Shellac 4.1 and the drum

The question of how to separate the paper cup from the shellac remains: thinking that I might be able to melt the paper off by soaking the 'candy' in water resulted in the piece on the left. I'd forgotten that, despite shellac being somewhat water resistant, water makes it 'blush' hence the light colour:

The outer layer of paper did delaminate  and I was able to remove it in pieces but the inner waxed surface is thoroughly stuck on. However even the gentle force needed to hold the piece deformed it since it is still soft on the inside (will it ever totally dry out?) Further light abrasion with an cotton swab moistened by water, alcohol or turpentine cotton resulted in hardly any more removal. Have contacted City & Guilds to see if someone in the Conservation department can advise the best way to remove the paper. In the meantime, I will start more trials using an ice cube tray as a form, sprinkling its polypropylene surface with pigment as a release (think cake tin with butter and flour):

The drum is coming on apace. On Monday I met up with Sertaç Ozturk www.ahmetsertac.com at AmberPlatform. He is trained in architecture and industrial design and has participated in some of the AmberPlatform shows, including the 2012 Common Tense: New Media Arts from Turkey  where he contributed an amusing and non-serious automatic back-scratching wall-mounted device. Building kinetics works is one of his strong points.

We connected and had a lively discussion. He proposed an elegantly simple solution to my overly-complex thoughts concerning how to generate random sounds, especially after showing him Max Eastley's Kinetic Drawing sculptures from his 2008 show at the Metropole Galleries in Folkstone (wait for 2.18 to see this work).

Simply put, all I need to do is have a closed spring made:

into which I can easily introduce a variety of  short, loose objects which will gently strike or drag over the surface of the drum. The spring can be as long as I like, drooping over the drum and introducing, as Max said at the Pitt Rivers Museum conference, the 'instability which generates randomness'. The spring will either be secured to  a hand-crank (thank you, Sertaç!) operated by the viewer or perhaps I may find a disco ball motor to drive it. We meet again next Monday afternoon to talk to a spring maker who works in the old caravansari (post of 4 April).

In the meantime, the drum is done. I had found the skin (10 TL) a few weeks ago at one of the nearby local music shops, and this week found a short section (600mm) of 230mm diam. PVC waste water pipe (15TL):

and a Jubilee clip/hose clamp big enough to go around it (free!).  Soaking the skin for a few hours in a tub of hot water, it became very pliable. I carefully located it on top of the pipe and dropped the clamp on top:

Patiently and gently pulling the skin with needle nose pliers and slowly tensioning the clamp, I managed to secure the skin. Every 30 min or so I checked it and tensioned the skin more, then tightened the clamp more, until there was no move movement.

After drying overnight, I struck it a few times, bongo-style, and noticed how the tone dropped perceptibly after just a few taps. I guess the clamp does not really secure it tight enough to play it like a bongo, but it will be fine for my purposes, as the pipe cylinder is quite resonant, especially when held up off the floor (open ended).

 The size of the drum is, naturally, determined by  the size of my suitcase!