Hide Tanning & Leathercraft

Hide Tanning is Sacred Work

From a skin that was about to decompose, I transform it into a skin that can live again for many years to come. It can clothe us, protect us from the weather, keep us warm, hold our belongings, and so much more. And it’s biodegradable. Truly biodegradable. It leaves no trace. And it honours our Ancestors.

I tan skins the old way. No chemicals and no machines. Only natural fats and oils and tannins, antler, bone, wooden and metal tools, and a lot of physical work. No water polluted because water is sacred. It’s just… a LOT of work But it’s so very worth it. To honour the animals this way, to make them live again in a new form. Shapeshifting.

The skins I tan are either salvaged by me before they are destroyed/buried, or offered to me by people who wish to honour the animals that they took such good care of.

All sheepskins so far came from free range animals. This is not to say that I won’t tan a skin that comes from a factory farm. Because I will. I hate factory farms, but I will honour any animal skin that comes my way.

Hide Tanning is an ancient skill. Softening animal skins for clothing is one of the oldest human skills on Earth that exists since the Stone Age. Killing the animal and honouring every part of her meant using the meat, the organs, the bones, the tendons and… of course, the skin. It was a way of life where everything needed was provided by Nature. My Ancestors and the Greater Community of Beings are my main inspiration for my work.

You can learn more about the natural tanning methods I use here.

Handtanned Skins

Bellow you can find a selection of photos of skins I’ve tanned myself with only natural products and my own hands. I have tanned mostly sheepskins, but also goatskins, fishskins, reindeer skins and fox skins (road kill). All animal skins are salvaged, which means no animal has been killed just for the skin. I work with skins that would otherwise be buried or thrown into the garbage.