Miriam's Tambourine Craft - Parshat Beshalach

Enjoy this Miriam’s tambourine craft – perfect for Parshat Beshalach, Pesach or anytime you want to celebrate Jewish women. When you’re done, try this Hamalach Hagoel poster craft. This post contains affiliate links.

Jewish history and culture is full of heroic women, our role models. Among them is Miriam. One of Miriam’s key moments is in the Parsha (Torah portion) of Beshalach. After the sea split and the Israelites crossed safely to the other side, Miriam took her tambourine and the other women and they broke out in a song and dance of gratitude.

Music is part and parcel of Judaism, as is the role of the women. And as women, we prepare for the day that it will be OUR turn to break out our tambourines. When the Messiah and the final redemption comes, and there will be no more suffering or persecution, we too will break out in song and gratitude.

For our generation, this is probably the most in-tune we’ve ever been to our yearning for the final redemption.

And so when a local shul’s women’s league created a “tambourine decorating” workshop I was happy to design some templates for them to trace and color.

Whether you are making this as a commemoration of Miriam and her followers praising G-d through music for the splitting of the sea, in anticipation of using it yourself, or both, it’s a fun workshop project for a variety of age groups.

Decorating your own Miriam Tambourine

I designed a few Israel/Jerusalem/Redemption themed templates for you to cut out, transfer, trace, and color on a blank canvas tambourine. There are three templates in total.

FYI if you want standalone coloring pages to color without a tambourine, you can get coloring pages based on these images in this Israel coloring page and this bundle.

The actual tambourine was colored by my friend – I borrowed it to take some pretty final photos. She used Sharpies to decorate hers. If you want a richer surface color, you can use Posca or Vivid Pop (ready to use) paint markers instead. You can also use it for just the outline if you want a mixed look – a pronounced outline with a more muted fill.

Other options include fabric markers, acrylic paints... the possibilities are really endless. Any medium that is compatible with canvas would work. Whatever you choose, it’s a fabulous workshop or group craft.

To transfer the drawing to the canvas, I recommended they use good old carbon paper! And it works great.

What you need to make Miriam’s Tambourine

8 inch canvas tambourines
Permanent markers (make sure you have enough black ones to go around) or paint markers (Posca is a favorite, I love Vivid Pop too – those don’t need priming so they’re great for group events.)
Carbon paper
Pencil or pen
The template, printed (download at the end of this post)
Scissors

How to make this Miriam’s Tambourine Craft

Apologies for the lack of step by step – I did not make this myself and the kind women agreed to share photos!

1. Cut out the template of your choice around the outer circle.

2. Place the carbon paper carbon-side-down on the tambourine.

3. Place the image on top of the carbon paper, aligned with the tambourine beneath it.

4. Go over the details of the image using a pen or pencil. Try a bit first and make sure you’re putting enough pressure.

5. Remove the carbon paper and color in your image using markers!

6. If you’d like, when you’re done you can outline the original line art in black or another dark color.

Your Miriam’s tambourine craft is complete!

Download the tambourine templates

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