A Sacred Offering: From my heart to yours: Shamanic drum kits
- Ilona Dovey
- Sep 5
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 6
For months now, perhaps even longer, I have felt a quiet, persistent whisper in my heart, a calling to share something more than I already do. A calling to extend my work in a way that feels deeply
personal, accessible, and aligned with the medicine I carry.
Over the years, many of you have reached out, asking if I would ever offer drum kits - something you could use to birth your own sacred drum from the comfort of your home. And for a long time, the timing simply wasn’t right. I have always believed that something this meaningful needs to be shared with full presence and with intention. But I now realise that medicine travels across space and time, and we don't need to be physically present to birth the drum, and now, the time of sharing has finally arrived.
I’m beyond honoured to share that I am finally offering Shamanic drum kits - a sacred invitation for you to step into the drum birthing process, no matter where you are in the world. If you’ve longed to sit with me in person, to create and birth a drum together in ceremony, but haven’t had the opportunity, this offering might be an alternative option for you. It’s my way of extending the circle, of sharing the teachings and energy of this work beyond physical limitations.
How the Shamanic Drums Found Me: A Story of Remembering
Sometimes, it’s not us who discover something - but something discovers us.
When I returned from Peru in 2016, something in me had shifted. It was more than a shift, it was a complete reorientation of how I understood myself, the world, and my place in it. I didn’t have the words for it then, only the deep knowing that I could no longer live the same way I had before. The life I followed prior to embarking on a path with the plant medicine, had caused so much suffering. The ceremonies, the land and the spirit of the Amazon jungle cracked me open in the most beautiful and terrifying way. And when I came back to my "normal" life, nothing quite fit anymore. I was in a kind of spiritual freefall, searching for meaning, for guidance, for grounding and integration.
That is when I discovered the Edinburgh Shamanic Centre and enrolled to one of their courses, not just to learn about shamanism, but also to try and make sense of everything I was going through and to o understand the language that my soul had begun speaking. Looking back now, I see it clearly - this wasn’t just a decision, this was an initiation. A path that had already been chosen by my spirit guides long before I could comprehend it. At the end of my first year of training, we were asked to own a Shamanic drum. I knew in my bones that I couldn’t just buy one. This wasn’t a commodity to me. It was a relationship, and that relationship had to begin at the very beginning - with bringing my soul drum to life by myself. So, I gathered what I needed: rawhide, frame, lacing, a few scattered YouTube tutorials - and I created my first drum.
It was imperfect, I remade it, then remade it again and again...
Each time, I learned something new - not just about the process, but about myself. Creating that first Shamanic Drum, I was being taught about patience, humility and sacredness to Mother Earth. The spirits were teaching me, gently and with humour, through every mistake. Eventually, my first Shamanic Drum was born - a living being, infused with my breath, my prayers, my trial and error. And I knew something had awakened in me.
Word began to spread quietly. Friends asked if I could make them a drum too, but not for money - just as an exchange for a massage, a healing session, raw cacao or something else. It felt all very organic, very heart-led. I never planned to become a drum maker. It wasn’t even a “thing” I thought I’d do, but Spirit had other ideas.
What began as a curiosity slowly unfolded into a sacred calling. Each drum I made became a ceremony in itself - each one carrying the unique medicine of the person it was meant for. No two drums are ever the same as each one of them is holding a sacred story, a song, and a spirit.
The spirit of the drum walked beside me, whispered to me, and guided me - patiently waiting until I was ready to listen until. Shamanic Drums has chosen me to hopefully share as much healing with the world as I possibly can.
Even after all these years, I’m still amazed by this process. Every time I sit down to birth a drum, it feels like the first time, and I certainly don’t make these drums alone. They are created through me, not by me. It is my spirit guides who guide my hands, who sing through the rawhide, who whisper the shapes and knots into being. I am simply the vessel. The observer. The witness.
The more I do this work, the more I learn to step aside. Not to cling, control or shape the whole process with ego, but to allow the energy to flow through me. There is nothing particularly special about me. I am not the drum maker, or the healer, I am simply one who answered the call, and continues to show up with gratitude.
This is Spirit’s work. I’m just the channel. And that, in itself, is the greatest honour I can experience.
Now, almost 7 years later, I offer this medicine forward - with reverence, humility, and joy.
If you’re reading this and you feel a similar whisper... maybe it’s your time too. Maybe the drum is calling you home.
Each kit is crafted with care and intention, holding everything you need to begin your own drum birthing journey:
1 Rawhide Drum Head
Lacing (for weaving your drum)
Drum Frame
Drumstick Materials: stick, wool, and drumstick head covering
Instructions & Guidance
This is not just a craft project - it’s a sacred act. A conversation between you and the spirit of the drum. A way to connect with your own rhythm, your ancestry, your voice, your medicine.
With all my heart,
Ilona - Snowy Feather
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