Rattle is a very simple musical instrument, it needs only a closed hollow part and some small things inside, like seeds, little stones/crystals or beads. If you shake it, the grains hit the hollow part inside. Its sound depends on the size and hardness of grains and the hardness and thickness of the hollow.

A twin, a falcon-head and a single tulip rattle with tiny bells:

Of course the hollow part is made of rawhide. I got a lot of smaller pieces from my friend, who is a drum maker. As a beginner rattle maker, I used a very thick rawhide (horse skin) for my double-rattle ( I should have rather chosen a thinner rawhide, because it was very hard to work with!)
Shaping of rawhide depends on its moisture and thickness: must be soaked for hours, because it is very hard and tough in dry state.

Horse rawhide in dry state:

I already made some stems for my rattles and drumsticks some weeks ago, they were made of dry walnut and other hard wood (forget soft wood like pine or poplar!).

Various stems for future rattles and drumsticks:

The process:

Soak the rawhides. For small rattles you'd rather use thin skins, like goat or deer.

Design templates - the shapes will be 10-12 cm long.

Cut the paper templates.

Draw them round on the rawhides. Take care that asimmetric shapes must be mirrored. Notice the direction of filaments of rawhides must be the same - or they shrunk differently that would cause deformation!

Cut the shapes along the lines. Use very strong and sharp scissors or a sharp knife.

Make holes on both sides of the rawhide. Make sure the holes are equidistant from each other and they are on the same places both sides. This is a good perphorator, set it for 2 mm holes:

Sew the both sides, fronts out and backs inside. Use a big blunt needle and thick strong thread.

Stuff this "bag" with dry sand, cramming with a stick:

Put them on the fork-stick and let them dry for some days. You will notice the thread will be loosen. Pull it again strongly before the rawhide dries perfectly.

When they dry perfectly, remove the sand and replace it with some grains like rice, beans or little stones, beads. Stick the hollow forms on the stems with leather-glue (i use Palmatex), and roll their neck with thread. You can decorate them with some little bells as well like this:

The round-shaped bellow is a small drum made of coconut-shell. Closeup photo:

How to care rawhide? Use natural grease, like beef tallow or vegetable oil with bee-wax.

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