The most interesting design I ever saw for a drum was by a bloke, name of Ted, who lived in North East England. I used to run into him at Whitby Folk Week, although it's a few years since I last saw him about.
On year he turned up with a home made "African Talking Drum". The body of the drum was two plastic buckets placed base to base. The skins (one at each end) were cut from an old white shirt he no longer needed. To strengthen and reinforce the cotton of the shirt, he had coated the fabric with a white latex glue (Local tradename "Copydex" - don't know if the same brand name is used elsewhere). When he had finished the coating process, it was a creamy colour, slightly streaked in both colour and texture, and looked very much like a natural vellum. The "skins" had holes punched in them (probably using a hole punch for putting paper into a ring binder) and they were threaded together (Washing line or thick string - I can't recall exactly which).
The overall effect was an Hour-Glass shaped drum which he could put under his arm and change the note it played by pressure from his elbow.
All in all a VERY EFFECTIVE piece of equipment which cost no more than a couple of pounds to build.
Quack!
Geoff the Duck.