Buckle up kids it's story time.
This drum has been something I've been knocking around in the back of my brain for years now. I had always wanted to collaborate with some type of visual artist. I had spent some time trying to find a pyrographer that would be interested in doing some wood burning, but had a really difficult time. So my next thought was painters and tattoo artists. Upon scrolling my Instagram feed one day I happened across Mr. Richard Bess. A prolific tattoo artist from Northwestern Pennsylvania. After spending some time stalking through his Instagram feed like a jealous ex-girlfriend, I decided to reach out.
I was immediately surprised to find how open and excited Rich was about the project, I thought he would honestly not give me the time of day. We went back and forth for awhile about logistics and how the shell, or as he called it "canvas" should be prepared. Finally, we settled on a transparent white lacquer with some Pearl powder added. We were already using a maple Stave shell for the project, which is a very light-colored wood, but the idea was to try and make the background as featureless as possible to help highlight the artwork that would go over top. The transparent white lacquer allows you to see just a little bit of the grain of the wood through it, and the Pearl powder adds a subtle shimmer to the finish.
After the canvas had been properly prepared, Rich and I talked about it and decided that it would be best to completely assemble the drum with all of the hardware, and then send it to him in that state. This way, he could visualize how the artwork would interact with the hardware of the drum.
All of the hardware on this drum features a copper splatter powder coat, we wanted to add a bit of industrial texture to the drum and found that this really added just what we were looking for.
Once the drum got to Rich, we started talking about the artwork. Rich is a master of his craft, with Incredible range, and an amazing instinct for what will work visually on any given project. What he came up with blends many genres seamlessly into one captivating piece of work that perfectly encompasses the feel ot this drum. It has layers of detail and nuance that draw you in and keep your focus. Also, doing artwork on a cylindrical canvas can be difficult, but you can tell that lots of thought went into how this piece would look as a whole once finished. In other words, he absolutely hit it out of the park.
Up until this point I've been talking specifically about the drum that you see and pictures and videos in this listing. I wanted to talk a little bit about what happens if you decide to buy this drum today. This drum was a one-off piece of art, and to replicate it would be a tragedy. Our hope in creating this piece was that it would allow the opportunity for our customers to commission a custom piece of art for themselves utilizing the same process that we've described up to this point.
If you order this piece today, first we will get in contact with you and we'll sort out the easier details, what color powder coat Hardware you might want- as there are literally thousands available, what kind of specific Hardware choices you might want if any, and any other drum related customizations. Then, we will start talking about the artwork. The price of this drum reflects a fully customized, hand-painted piece of art from Mr. Bess himself. The artwork on the drum is entirely up to you, the client. You can send us pictures, fonts, ideas, videos... Whatever you want to pull into the design. We will take all of this information to Mr. Bess, and come back to you with his ideas and rough sketches- the same process as if you were getting a brand-new tattoo. Once the artwork is all finalized, we will follow the same steps that we outlined before. The drum will be built in its entirety, shipped off, disassembled, hand-painted, and then returned us. Upon returning we will be applying several coats of protective lacquer over top of the artwork, and then reassembling the drum for the final time.
I can't stress enough that the purpose of this project is to be able to create highly customized masterpieces for our clients. Nothing is impossible and nothing is out of reach here. If you want to do different shell types or materials, different Hardware options, or drastically different artwork involving wild and vivid colors or different styles... We have you covered.
I hope that the amount of satisfaction and enjoyment we got from this project is coming across in this text. Our only hope is that we can provide that amount of joy to you. We hope that you'll consider buying this instrument and work of art so that we can build something amazing together.
ONE FINAL NOTE:
if you're reading this paragraph right now, the original drum pictured in this listing is still currently for sale. If you want to buy this drum, please choose 14 under drum diameter, 8 under drum depth, straight shell under the contoured shell option, and maple under wood species. Finally please include a small note in the order details section at checkout specifying that you would like to purchase the original tattoo art HHG snare.