Final run from Maree’s shed in Ross • In 7 active carts • 18 left
Maree's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
Maree's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
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30-day money-back guarantee
One of Maree’s final 210
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Maree's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
Hand-Tuned in Ross, on New Zealand’s West Coast
Maree Tierney, 67. Welder. For thirty-six years she made farm gates and cattle stops in a tin shed near Hokitika. For the last six, only rain drums. This is the last batch she will tune by ear.
“It rains here a hundred and seventy days a year. I’d never once heard it play a tune.”
— Maree Tierney, Ross, West Coast
What’s in the Box
Everything That Comes With the Drum
The Drum
One 10 cm steel rain drum, tuned by hand.
Two Mallets
Wooden handles, rubber tips. Or play with your fingers.
Beginner Songbook
Simple number notation. Anyone can play on day one.
Cloth Pouch
For storing it, carrying it or giving it as a gift.
Why This Drum
Six Things a Machine-Tuned Drum Doesn’t Have
Every detail comes from thirty-six years of working steel on a coast where it rains most days of the year.
The Pentatonic Promise
All nine notes come from the same five-note scale. Whatever tongue a raindrop lands on, it fits. There’s no wrong note.
The 432Hz Calibration
Tuned a touch lower than the usual pitch. The notes come out softer and rounder in the open air.
The Coast Finish
Powder-coated steel, sealed against rust and the salt air off the Tasman. Maree’s own drum has sat outside through nine West Coast winters.
The Bellbird Note
For nine springs, the top note of every drum was checked against the bellbird in the kōwhai outside Maree’s window.
The Palm-Sized Shape
Ten centimetres across. Small enough for a deck railing, a fence post, a stump or the top of the rainwater tank.
Played by the Weather
Set it outside and the rain plays it. On dry days, the hose or your fingertips do the same.
— Expert Note
“Most steel tongue drums sold today are stamped and tuned by machine, which is why many of them sound thin. A drum tuned by ear, one at a time, against the same reference note is a different instrument. The five-note scale means anyone can play it without a lesson. That isn’t marketing. It’s simply how the scale works.”
Dr Helen Marsden — Music educator and percussion tutor, Christchurch
Where It Lives
Perfect For
Quality Promise
Five Things You Get With Every Drum
30-Day Return Policy
If it doesn’t feel right, send it back within 30 days for a full refund. No questions asked. Just one email to our team.
A Note From the Shed
Every drum is tuned by hand, so each one has its own small character in pitch and in the pearl-flecked finish. It can stay outside all year. If you get proper gales where you live, give it a spot that’s a bit sheltered from the worst of the wind.
The Details
Product Specifications
| Material | Carbon steel |
| Finish | Pearl-flecked powder coating, six colours |
| Size | 10 cm across (Standard) — XXL Premium also available |
| Notes | 9 tongues, pentatonic scale, A=432Hz |
| Set Includes | Drum, 2 mallets, beginner songbook, cloth pouch |
| How to Play | Mallets, fingertips, or leave it outside and let the rain play it |
| Outdoor Use | Built to stay outside, sealed against rust and salt air |
| Care | Wipe with a soft dry cloth. Don’t submerge. |
| Maker | Maree Tierney, welder in Ross, West Coast, since 1990 |
| Final Batch | 210 drums |
Why This Is the Last Batch
Why This Is the Last Batch
A note from the shed in Ross:
Maree Tierney has welded farm gates, cattle stops and tank stands in a tin shed behind her house in Ross, on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, since 1990. In March 2017 a commission didn’t work: a steel leaf strainer with cut slots, made for a café’s rainwater tank in Hokitika. She set it on the old rimu stump beside her own tank and forgot about it. Two months later, five days into a nor’west rain, the thing was playing notes — a clean, ringing tone for every raindrop. By 2020 the shed made nothing else.
Thirty-six years of grinders and hammers have worn down her hearing, the high notes first. For nine springs she checked the top note of every drum against the bellbird in the kōwhai outside her window. This September the bellbirds came back, and she couldn’t hear them.
So this is the last batch she tuned herself, through the winter. 210 drums, one at a time. After these, the files go in the drawer.
Size, Care and Returns
Size, Care and Returns
What you get
- One hand-tuned steel tongue drum, 10 cm × 10 cm, nine tongues, pentatonic, tuned by ear to A=432Hz
- Two mallets with rubber tips, a beginner songbook with number notation, a cotton drawstring pouch
- Six colours; XXL Premium size also available
Living outside
- Powder-coated carbon steel, sealed against rust and the salt air off the Tasman
- Built to stay outdoors all year. Maree’s own has sat on the same rimu stump through nine West Coast winters
- If you get proper gales, give it a spot that’s a bit sheltered from the worst of the wind
- Wipe with a soft dry cloth. Don’t submerge it
Returns
- 30 days, full refund, no questions and no forms
- One email to info@craft-folk.com and it’s sorted
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Email info@craft-folk.com, Monday to Friday. We answer within one business day. Maree doesn’t own a smartphone — her nephew Sam, who builds websites in Christchurch, set the shop up and handles every question and every order.
Can I return it if it is not for me?
Can I return it if it is not for me?
30 days, full refund, no questions and no forms. One email and we sort out the return. You do not pay return shipping.
How is it made?
How is it made?
Powder-coated carbon steel, cut and tuned by hand in Maree’s tin shed in Ross, on the West Coast. Nine tongues, pentatonic, tuned by ear to A=432Hz. For nine springs she checked the top note of every drum against the bellbird in the kōwhai outside her window. Final batch: 210.