Hide Club

foundations

If you are brand-new to this craft

Or if you’re tried tanning your own and realized how daunting it can be

And most of all, if hide tanning means more to you than meets the eye

You belong in Hide Club: FOUNDATIONS.

Hide Club is a comprehensive, live + recorded, online program that translates the principles of each natural tanning method. We cover smoke-tanning (brain-tanning), bark-tanning, and mineral tanning. You tan a hide in each method, making buckskin cloth, leather, and rawhide. We guide you to build a scraping beam and a softening frame. And you learn in alongside a crew of other amazing tanner-learners who’ve got your back.

Hide Club gets you situated with confidence in the complexities of this natural craft, from its methodology to its cultural contexts to its re-creation in your everyday life.

Register BY JANUARY 15TH to get your kit

February 6th to March 27th
Thursdays weekly @ 4:30-6pm PT
+ 3 Saturdays: 10:30am-12:30pm PT


What it’s like inside Hide Club: FOUNDATIONS:

A weekly live, recorded call on Zoom. A dive into each category of natural hide tanning plus hide preservation, building your own at-home equipment, and techniques to make it work for you.

A group of learners and teachers who all learn from each other. Your questions and experimentations that turn into your confidence.

And this year, FOUNDATIONS is the most ambitious it’s ever been: we are tanning (1) one mineral-tan rabbit skin, (2) one bark-tanned sheepskin leather rug, and (3) one smoke-tanned buckskin cloth.

We explore options how to adapt this complex craft into everyday life. We hold reverence for the animals whose hides we work. We respect the lineages that innovated this craft tradition. We explore our own lineages + connect hide tanning to them. We talk science. We tell stories. We laugh at our mistakes. And we’re here for the awkward parts of learning as much as for the game-changing aha! insights that you get with each hide you tan.

make hide tanning your own

How to Join:

  1. Choose your sliding-scale tuition + register below

  2. (Optional) Purchase your materials kit
    ~ on sale til December 26.
    ~ includes ingredients + 3 full-size hides.

softening buckskin by cabling in hide tanning

How to Make the Most of the Club:

  1. Get our recommended tools. See here.

  2. Carve out the Hide Club schedule in your calendar

  3. Catch calls live or watch recordings soon after
    (we recommend watching recordings 2x!)

Returning Hide Club members:

Use code BACKAGAIN at checkout for 15% off your chosen tuition tier. Welcome back yall!

Our Schedule

Including TBA guest guides!


some schedule changes may happen before we begin

Thursday sessions are 4:30-6pm PT

Saturday sessions are 10:30am-12:30pm PT

February 6

  • Intro to each other: your new cohort!

  • Rabbit skin tanning: alum-tawing

February 13

  • Equipment-building

February 20

  • Rabbit skin softening

  • Making bark liquor

February 22

  • Sheep skin tanning: scraping

  • Bark-liquoring

February 27

  • Sheep skin tanning: scudding

  • Deer skin tanning: bucking hides

March 6

  • TBA guest speaker!

March 8

  • Deer skin tanning: graining + framing

March 13

  • Sheep skin tanning: finishing barktan leather

March 20

  • Deer skin tanning: smoking

March 22

  • Deer skin tanning: final softening

March 27

  • Closing

What you get in HIDE CLUB

  • You’ll know exactly what’s going on under the microscope in hide tanning

  • You’ll learn the difference between each natural method + how to experiment, hybridize, and innovate

  • You’ll be able to re-create the process at home long after the program ends

  • You’ll be a more knowledgeable, perceptive, and skillful tanner

your sliding scale tuition

Flexibility for accessibility  

Part of our ethos at Fern + Roe is community care. We take this literally, meaningfully. We want to support your hide tanning practice as fully we can. And I believe that now more than ever is the time to root into this craft - to build capacity by growing your skillset.

The sliding scale model is one way to do this. You choose the cost tier that works best for you, no questions asked. If you’re in a position to pay higher and offset a sponsored spot, we welcome it. If you’re in a position to pay lower and have your costs offset, we’re here for it. Scroll below to see some guidelines to help decide.

And we offer 15% off for returning Hide Club members: use code BACKAGAIN at check-out.

Choose from one of three tiers below.

For Indigenous aspiring hide tanners, we offer waived tuition for you if the cost is a barrier. Click on the Sponsored Tuition spot below to take us up on this. You do not need to officially apply to take a sponsored spot; please follow the guidelines here.

Tier 1

$279 CAD
$199 USD

This price is for you if, for ex…

  • you struggle to meet necessities, such as rent

  • it would take 3+ months to save up for the next tier

  • Hide Club would be your main program investment for the year

Tier 2

$349 CAD
$249 USD

This price is for you if, for ex…

  • you can meet your basic necessities, but are not yet building savings

  • it would take 3+ months to save up for the next tier

  • Hide Club is one of a small number of other programs you can invest in this year

Tier 3

$399 CAD
$284 USD

This price is for you if, for ex…

  • you can meet your basic necessities and are building savings

  • you do not need to save up to join

  • Hide Club is one of several other programs you are investing in

  • You want to contribute to the Sponsorship program!

Indigenous Sponsored Tuition

$0

This price is for you if, for ex…

  • you are part of a First Nation, Métis, Inuit, or Native American community

  • the tuition cost is a barrier to you

    Not sure if you qualify? See more details here

    Your materials kit is an out-of-pocket expense after this. We have a limited amount of free kits. Email us to request a free kit, while supplies last.

Need more help choosing? Here’s some tips:

  • think about community reciprocity. For ex, if you have low-income but high assets, you are at the middle or upper tier. Or, if you are joining FOUNDATIONS to run a hide tanning business, take this investment return into account. Consider your resources knowing that choosing a lower tier takes a spot away from the collective.

  • also, hold yourself to lightness and care. Is this a particularly tough time for you? Would a higher tier impact your quality of life but a lower tier (and the experience within Hide Club) enhance it? Are there other ways you give back to your community that aren’t financial?

  • remember, the tier you choose today doesn’t have to stay the same from one year to the next.

What we’re tanning

RABBIT SKIN LEATHER

SHEEPSKIN LEATHER RUG

DEER BUCKSKIN

Your materials kit includes a preserved rabbit skin, sheep skin, and deer hide. You’ll turn these fresh hides into tanned leather + buckskin.

RABBIT LEATHER: a bite-sized introductory tanning project, we can tan these hides indoors in the winter with ease.

Tanning method: alum-tawing, aka Mineral Tanning
Hides sourced from T’Solum River Ranch on Vancouver Island, BC

SHEEPSKIN LEATHER RUG: a full-sized woolly sheepskin tanned over 4 weeks, can be tanned indoors or outdoors

Tanning method: bark-tanning, aka vegetable tanning
Hides sourced from southern Vancouver Island family farms

DEER BUCKSKIN: The classic, the penultimate, the hide that says, this is how we do natural tanning: buckskin made from deer.

Tanning method: smoke-tanning, aka brain-tanning
Hides sourced from Montana, on Blackfoot Confederacy territory

Rabbit and sheep skins are discarded hides from animals raised for meat + care for lovingly at small farms. Deer hides are gleaned from hunting season, left over from hunters who only take the meat. Salvaging hides is the first step in a reciprocal relationship to the land that every hide tanner is at the frontline of.

Each hide that we tan in Hide Club is tanned alongside each other over Zoom, so your questions are answered in real time. Recordings are available within 48 hours and our course portal with recordings is open for one year after our cohort closes.

 FAQs

  • Thursday calls are 90 minutes and Saturday calls are 2 hours.

  • Yes.

    Every call is recorded and available in our online space for 12 months after the program end.

  • Some instruction is pre-recorded. This helps us move as a group through different time zones + supports the trickier, more technical aspects of hide tanning that need fancy video work.

    Pre-recorded videos will be uploaded in the online space.

  • Each week you get an email with a “here’s what we are doing in Hide Club” rundown. These emails are also alerts for any pre-recorded material.

    To receive emails, you need to be signed up as “yes” to receive email marketing from FloDesk, after registering.

    • Rabbit skin

    • Deer hide

    • Sheep skin

    • Framing string + needle

    • Alum

    • Calx (lime powder)

    • Leather oil

    • Protective gloves

    • and more!

    • the lumber for building your simple at-home equipment (we’ll give you a short list + directions on how to source it). We build these together on a call.

    • two litres/quarts of white vinegar

    • a large (10-gal) soaking bin (ie Rubbermaid)

    • a standard 5- or 6-gal bucket

    • your own tannins: we recommend 5-10 lbs for your sheepskin. Recommend suppliers and a how-to guide for harvesting are in the online space

    • our recommended tools. Click this link!

  • The main instructor is Mara Cur.

    Our tech artisan is…TBA! Bonnie Klohn has retired. We will miss you and we love you, B.

    We host guest speakers every year and we’ll announce this year’s speakers before the cohort begins.

I’m in!

Click here to grab your materials kit.

You can do this before or after choosing your tuition tier.

It’s not just the skill of hide tanning you grow with each hide you tan

It’s hands-on capableness. it’s connection to ancestry.

It’s community, it’s resilience.

words from hide club

  • “All I want to do is gush about how awesome it was and how much more there is to learn. I miss the gathering and all the check-ins."

    Renée-Lynn D

  • “Thank you again for creating and curating such a magical space and community.”

    Katelyn K

  • "For so many of us that are hide tanners, the feeling of magic, wonder, and restoration is palpable- this coursework is the inner knowing, made tangible."

    Emily M

  • “I have left the program feeling held, supported, witnessed, and celebrated by this particularly impressive and deeply kind and supportive community. I feel well resourced + more equipped emotionally, practically, and spiritually to engage in right relationship to this craft ."

    Marissa S

  • "Such a depth of knowledge from the teachers/mentors and peers alike. There are so many nuances captured in each of our hide practices."

    Jackson R

  • "The flow of the program was seamless - each session intentional and rich, with enough repetition and hands-on learning to gain confidence and learn quickly. Well done, really, what a successful transition to offering something so tactile online. I’m in awe!"

    Laura H

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