I didnt want to drive a bunch of nails into mine, so I simply cut out a bunch of chicken wire hexagons and slid them onto a half inch dowel. The body is quarter inch oak plywood and each strip is beveled at 30 degree angles.
I puzzled over how to glue six long strips together, until I came up with the idea of laying them out with masking tape. It worked great.
I used rice as a filler. The sound is really nice and can be controlled by the angle at which the rainstick is tipped. Enjoy the project.