Drum maker and Wula's cofounder, Tom Kondas, on the creation of Wula's product line:

"Before I joined forces with my partner in Wula, Michael Markus, he always found it amusing that anytime someone was looking to buy one of the djembes I had built, that my prices were all over the place, and that about twenty percent of my djembes were "not for sale". I referred to those drums as special pieces, and had a hard time letting go of them.

When we established Wula Drum we realized that we needed a systematic way to class and price djembes by level of quality. The first pick of our djembes became the Special Piece line, and thereafter we developed the Artist line on down; grading shells by several factors, including: quality of form and general workmanship (proportion, symmetry, balance), as well as wood quality. Over time, and by gaining direct control over the entire carving process, the models began to differ more and more in both form and workmanship - as we worked to overcome deficiencies inherent in both rough shell and shell finishing work in Guinea - but most noticeably in form."