Make your own Percussion Mallet!

So, I had a fabulous although slightly weird thrift store find the other day. It was a large cardboard barrel that I think was originally used for some sort of bulk food storage. But sitting forlornly among abandoned curling irons, toasters, and ugly couches, It begged me to take it home, paint it up, and make it into a drum for dance classes. That project is still a work in progress (there will hopefully be photos later on this week,) but I anticipated a need for a mallet to bang, bang, bang on the drum! And of course, I thought I should share, so without further ado, let's Make a Mess, and Make this:



You will need:
* A bouncy ball (A largish sized one. You could probably do this with a smaller super bounce ball and a thinner dowel, but drilling would be tricky.)
* A wooden dowel. (Mine has a 5/16" diameter, and is 12 inches long.)
* A rotary tool or drill of some kind.
* Gorilla Glue (Or other water-activated expanding strong glue)
* water
* Yarn (Optional)



Using your rotary tool, drill a hole in the bouncy ball. The hole only needs to go about 1/4-1/2 way through the ball, not all the way through. Be careful, this can be a little tricky! The hole needs to have a wide enough diameter that the dowel can fit into it snugly.



Dip the end of the dowel in water (it just needs to be damp for the glue to activate,) and then smear the glue on it. (Just about the last two inches)



Push the glue covered dowel into the hole in the bouncy ball. (Some of the glue will probably smoosh out, but don't worry, you can cover that by wrapping it with some yarn.) Make sure to push the dowel down as far as you can; I found it was easiest to put the ball on my desk and push the dowel down from above.


Now, smear some glue on the stick and wrap some yarn around the stick if you want to make it extra pretty. (And of course you want to make it extra pretty, right?) Let it dry for about an hour. Now, Tah-Dah! You have your very own percussion mallet!



Using my mallet, on my oh-so-fancy drum! (A.k.a. an empty coffee container. And no laughing at the not-really-a-musician girl, alright? :))