This is a classic design used by peoples from all over the world. The shell is often a section of hollowed out tree trunk, especially cottonwood found in the southern USA. We made ours out of a gourd.

It takes a pretty big gourd to do this project justice. We used a kettle gourd.

In this build, the heads are attached using stretched rawhide, so the head material had to be tough enough to withstand being pulled on by holes cut into it. We used a thicker grade of goatskin about 0.020 in (0.5 mm) thick or greater, but rawhide (from a cow), or even a hide with the hair on could work this one.