Persis said she starting making ceramic drums about nine years ago when her percussionist brother asked her to make three of them. He collects drums, and she’s a potter so “he thought it would be cool,” she said. “I’ve been making them ever since.”

Her brother doesn’t use them in performances.

“He likes the sound, but not the weight, so he doesn’t pack them around to gigs,” Persis said.

The ceramic drums come in all shapes and sizes. They didn’t break the mold, she never had one.

Being a potter, “I love to throw them,” she said, adding “They are remarkably unique” and people are “free to do their own thing with it.”

Some people use them as drums, but many just use them as decorations.

Ceramic drums do have their limitations. The deer hide Persis stretches for the drum heads has to be glued on. As a result, the drum can’t be tuned. If the head was tightened, it would crack the ceramic.

Persis makes pots and artwork like other potters, but she also likes to be creative in making musical instruments. One that she is experimenting with now consists of three cymbals over a large pot. She wanted to see if natural rain would be a good source to strike the cymbal. She didn’t like it so now she wants to try it as a fountain.

Persis also makes two-headed drums, Native American Udo and gourd percussion instruments. Prices range from $25 to $400.

She sells most of her work at local shows, one at Christmas and a couple in the summer, such as the Festival of the River in Arlington. She doesn’t sell much online.

“Pottery is heavy so I don’t ship much,” she said. “If I do I tell them it will cost twice as much.”

Persis has loved art her entire life. Born in Ohio, she moved with her family to the area during the Seattle World’s Fair in the early 1960s.

“My mother said even when I was a little tiny kid I always wanted to be an artist,” she said. “I would draw and mess around with stuff.”

She did a little bit of art in high school, and more in college.

She really got into pottery when she met her ex-husband while attending the California College for the Arts in Oakland.

“He was supposed to teach me pottery. I didn’t learn much, but we had a lot of fun,” she said with a laugh.

In 1971 they bought their “little piece of paradise and hard work,” she said. It was 3 1/2 acres with a rundown house and an old barn for $14,000.

Her studio is still there. She’s out there in the remodeled barn for at least an hour and up to nine hours almost every day. It’s her place of solitude, except for National Public Radio playing in the background.

Walking around her studio there is clay, deer skin, pots, stain, acrylic, a potter’s wheel, four kilns and so much more. Items she has made include a bird bath, dragon wine rack, lamps and plates.

Some of the work is very intricate and detailed.

“I curl up on the couch” to do that,” she said.

Persis will be selling some of her work at the Frailey Mountain Art Show and Sale Nov. 1-2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 360-435-5152 for directions or email gayle.persis@gmail.com.