Select a branch from a cactus that is dead or dying, then cut it to the required length. The tall stalks of the commonly grown capado cactus, which dry hard and are hollow in the middle, are perfect for constructing rain sticks. However, it’s crucial that the stalk is still somewhat malleable and soft at the beginning of your project so you can work with it.
- The traditional South American rain stick’s ancestry is unknown for sure.
- The tall stalks of the commonly grown capado cactus, which dry hard and are hollow in the middle, are perfect for constructing rain sticks.
The thorns should be carefully removed from the stalk and put aside. Strip them flush with the stalk’s surface with the knife.
Thorns should be pushed into the stalk’s middle. If necessary, tap them in lightly with the hammer. The best pattern is a spiral along the length of the stick, as this produces the faint sound of rain. As evenly as possible, space the thorns apart. The size of the objects that will fall inside determines how near the thorns should be to one another. If most of the thorns are struck by the seeds or stones as they fall, the sound will be the best. Before moving on to the following stage, let the cactus completely dry out.
- The thorns should be carefully removed from the stalk and put aside.
- Strip them flush with the stalk’s surface with the knife.
To tightly plug one end of the stick, cut a piece of wood. Take a hammer and lightly tap it in. Fill the stick’s remaining height, between 1/3 and 1/2, with pebbles or seeds. Tap the other end of the other wood plug, which has been cut.
By wrapping the yarn around the stalk either tightly or loosely, you may embellish your rain stick. They can also be painted.
Try a variety of materials, either separately or in combination, to create the desired “rain” sound before inserting the second plug. Beans create a softer sound than pebbles. Softer “rain” is made of sand and rice.
Make sure you only remove dead stalks from the cactus, not healthy ones that could harm the main plant.
A cactus rainstick: how is it made?
A rainstick is a long, hollow tube with sharp pins or thorns placed helically on its interior surface. It is partially filled with small stones or beans. When the stick is turned over, the pebbles fall to the opposite end of the tube and sound like raindrops falling by bouncing off the internal protrusions. The Mapuche are thought to have devised the rainstick, which they used in the hope that it would cause rainstorms. Although its origin is unknown, it was also discovered on the Chilean coast. The majority of the time, cacti like Eulychnia acida and Echinopsis pachanoi are used to make rainsticks. The hollow cacti are dried out in the sun. After the spines are removed, they are used like nails to prick the cactus. The rainstick is filled with pebbles or other tiny items, and the ends are sealed. When the rainstick is directed vertically, a sound resembling falling water is produced.
Similar instruments can also be found in Southeast Asia, Australia, and Africa; however, bamboo is frequently used in place of dried cactus in these regions.
In addition to being formed from cactus and thorns, rainsticks can also be made from other common materials like paper towel rolls and nails or toothpicks. They are frequently marketed to visitors traveling through portions of Latin America and the Southwest of the United States (which has a history of Spanish and Mexican cultural influence).
What is inside Rainsticks?
Music was frequently used to call down rain in a variety of cultures. A rainstick is a common example of a device that imitates the sound of rain. They are typically created from dead cactus tubes that have been filled with tiny pebbles and have cactus spines hammered into them from the inside.
Although the rainstick’s true ancestry is unknown, many believe it was likely created by an indigenous people known as the Diaguita who lived in the Chilean deserts.
Here, you get to create your own, slightly non-traditional rainstick! This one is constructed using an aluminum foil and a cardboard tube.
What you require:
- a substantial cardboard tube (paper towel or wrapping paper tube). The ideal tube has a diameter of about two inches.
- Metalized foil
- Dry grains, unpopped popcorn, little spaghetti, or small dried lentils.
- Tape
- Scissors
- Markers or crayons
How you act:
- On a piece of brown paper, trace the end of your tube (or construction paper).
- Create a circle around your original circle that is twice as large as it is, and then create four or so spokes connecting the two circles.
- Along the spokes, cut.
- Tape the spokes to the tube’s end.
- Cut a few pieces of aluminum foil that are roughly 6 inches broad and 1.5 times the length of your tube.
- Shape the aluminum foil scraps into long, thin snakes by crumpling them. Then, twist each one to form a spring.
- Insert the springs made of aluminum foil into your tube.
- Fill your tube with some unpopped popcorn, dried beans, or dry rice. Only around 1/10 of the tube should be filled. You can explore to hear how the sound changes with different amounts and kinds of seeds and beans.
- Cap your tube by creating a second brown paper cap (using the same three processes).
- Decorate the tube, if desired, by wrapping it with construction or brown paper and drawing on it with crayons or markers (or cut-out paper or stickers).
An Aboriginal rain stick is what?
Aboriginal Australians and people all around the world utilized rainsticks, which are prehistoric musical instruments that were believed to bring rain to dry land. Create your own rain stick using bamboo and a power drill to hear the relaxing sound of rain whenever you want. age 8 and up ($8 for members; $18 for non-members; $8 admission included). Register at 11:00 and Register at 1:30
Free with admission
Dot art originally consisted of sacred patterns that Australian Aboriginal people drew in the sand or painted on their bodies. Sacred motifs were afterwards covered in dots, crosshatching, spirals, circles, and dashes when dot painting on canvas first appeared. Make your own dot art with paint, and then use Scratch programming to make programmable dot art.
A laborer known as a “Swagman” moves from farm to farm while just carrying his “swag (small sack of belongings). Make a Swagman’s hat using a scroll saw, complete with corks strung from the brim to deter flies!
Make marsupial finger puppets to cuddle up to Australia’s distinctive wildlife. Learn the blanket stitch and other fundamental sewing techniques.
Aboriginal perspective of the universe, its creation, and its grand tales is reflected in the Dreamtime Tales. At 3:00 PM, come to our presentation of a dreamtime narrative.
Try Vegemite, an Australian yeast extract-based bread spread. Try the sweet Australian if you don’t like that “fanciful bread
How can a rain stick be made without nails?
Step 1:
Grab a roll of paper towels. Next, make a paper bag circular slightly larger than the diameter of your paper tower roll by cutting it out. In the center of your circle, trace the paper towel roll. Then, make roughly 4 evenly spaced slits from the circular’s edge to the circle you traced.
Step 2:
Over your cardboard roll, fold the paper bag circular up. Your circular will be attached to your cardboard tube with masking tape after you’ve taped off one end.
Step 3:
Take a box of aluminum foil out. Cut a piece of foil that is roughly three times as long as your tube. The aluminum foil should be formed into a long snake. Then fold it back and forth, giving it a lot of kinks. (This will make your rice and corn fall more slowly, making it sound more like a real rain stick!) When finished, insert it into your tube!
(My son, by the way, LOVED this portion. Squishing foil has a certain gratifying feeling.
Step 4:
Combine a lot of corn and rice. (We misjudged the amount we needed and only used about half of it. Even though we were happy with the outcome, perhaps using only maize or only rice would have been more effective. So definitely try something new!
(By the way, we completed all of the tasks on a plastic tray. We bought an inexpensive one from Ikea, but if you need one quickly, a dollar store probably has one as well. You might also get one from this website. But they’re quite expensive!)
Step 5:
Fill the cardboard tube with the rice-corn mixture. Following the same instructions from steps 1 and 2, seal the opposite end.
Step 6:
It’s time to embellish your rainmaker now. To make the paper that will cover your cardboard tube, cut it out. Next, sketch out a design!
(We used white craft paper, but computer paper should work just as well.)
My son drew a picture, which we then colored in together. (I saw a similar idea using watercolors here) and were impressed by her outcomes, so we gave it a go as well. It was enjoyable to make art together.
Step 7:
When we were done, we taped the artwork on the tube. then presto! We had a nice rainmaker, so we started shaking it for rain and good fortune.
(Unfortunately, we haven’t finished this craft in days. There are some cloudy clouds, but no sign of rain.
How do you use foil to make rain stick?
- On the construction paper, draw two circles using the end of your cardboard tube, spaced roughly five apart.
- Remove two circles that are three outside of the ones you traced.
- Make slits all the way around the rings you traced.
- Tape the slits all the way around the tube’s end after placing the circle on one end of the tube.
- A large piece of aluminum foil should be taken out and rolled lengthwise.
- Wrap the aluminum foil around the cardboard tube to form a spiral.
- Put the cardboard tube with the aluminum foil inside.
- Fill the tube with rice.
- With tape, attach the second circular to the opposite end of the cardboard tube.
- You can hear the calming sound of rain by turning your rainstick in all different directions!
Speaking of cardboard tubes, did you notice how I turned a toilet paper tube into a confetti popper? When you finish this job, you should check that out.
What stands for a rain stick?
The rain stick’s past is shrouded in secrecy. The employment of this musical instrument as a ritualistic tool in traditional civilizations is what is most obvious. It has long been utilized in ceremonies to bring rain in tribes all across the world. Nobody is aware about its country of origin. The goal of any ceremonial or cultural ceremony was to summon the might of water from the heavens.
Researchers from the fields of anthropology, history, and archaeology think the rain stick may have its roots in either South America, West Africa, or the prehistoric Aztec civilisation in Mexico. In myth, tradition, and cultural history, some of the oldest rain sticks were made by South and Central American tribes in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Panama, and Mexico. These tribes were primarily made up of farmers who lived off the land. They continued to have a close connection to nature.
The Diaguita tribe of Chile’s Mapuches dwells in the harsh and desolate Atacama Desert. The Diaguita utilize rain sticks to conjure rain for their crops during protracted droughts. It’s difficult to dispute the spiritual value of hearing the sound of rain from the instrument, whether or not you think the ritual may truly affect the weather. Just hearing the sound can give you hope if you’ve been without rain for a while.
In the 20th century, rain sticks first debuted in Mexican music. It has been hypothesized that the rain stick became well-known as a representation of the rainforest because of the Andean music that traveled to Europe.
Why do Native Americans employ rain sticks?
In order to request rain for their crops, it is thought that native agricultural cultures used Rain Sticks in arid environments. They were frequently crafted from dried cacti, bamboo, or hollowed-out reeds, which were then filled with pebbles or beans and exquisitely painted in lovely designs.
- Cloth Buds
- Bathroom Towel Tube
- PVC Foil
- Bunting and masking tape
- Rice
- Beads, feathers, and string
- Acrylic paint should be applied to the kitchen towel tube. Allow to dry. After that, add another layer of paint and let it dry.
- Create a palette with acrylic paints in various colors. Have a cotton bud on hand for each color of paint.
- Paint and adorn the tube’s exterior with various dot patterns using cotton buds. Allow to dry.
- Cut the balloons’ necks off. Securely stretch one of the balloons over the tube’s end.
- To make a long, thin sausage, crumple up a long piece of foil. To make loops for the rice to fall through, fold and twist. Put this into the tube with care.
- Add about a cup of rice at this point. Turn upside down, place your hand over the end, and listen to the sound. More rice can be added to make the sound louder, but it should still be soft like rain.
- With the other balloon, again, secure the rain stick’s end. Masking tape should be used to fix the balloons, and then it should be painted over. Allow to dry.
- Leave around 30 cm to thread beads and tie decorative feathers onto after wrapping jute twine or cotton string securely around the top of the rain stick. Securely fasten the end to the tube’s bottom using a tie.
- When finished, slowly flip over and enjoy the sound of the rain!
You might seal the ends with colored paper adhered with masking tape instead of balloons.