Hello everyone!
I just wanted to share my first time reskinning a shamisen. I managed to built the streching tools following Kyle Abbott´s Shamisen of Japan. I really like how it looks, my kids call it “the spider” 
One thing was having the tools, but did I make them correctly? Will they work?
As much as I was nervous, I decided to go for it. How else could I find out.
Right at the start, I managed to make a dent in the moistened skin while hammering the wedges into the clamps…
I decided to procede anyway. (Also, I was lucky to have some super fast drying glue which forms into a gel, I put that on the skin tear and maybe this also helped that the tear did not spread as much).
Preparing sticky rice glue (sticky indeed!) and applying on the dou.
In the book, it says “Take your time!”. I did. Maybe even too much. My neighbours had to bear with hammering sounds until 2 a.m. But it was worth it 
Next day:
I was glad that the skin did not rip from the tear I accidentally made earlier. Luckily, the tear stopped on the wooden rim and was not moving further.
A well deserved “sunbathing”.
Wodden clamps taken off, the skin is still holding. Time to glue the flaps.
After trimming.
And there it is, it´s alive and perfect for practise! Next time though, I´ll make sure there will be no hole.
If anyone is interested, I can upload videos of the skin sound later on.
Skin used: goat parchement (I got it from a very obscure little store that doesn´t even send parcels internationally).
Glue: made from sticky rice flour
Super glue used for “patching”: Pattex 100% Gel
Happy building!