Hide Club: SPECIALIZED

Smoke-tanning

Welcome to Hide Club.

Hide Club is a comprehensive, live, online program. We translate hide tanning to at-home practice - in your kitchen, backyard, or wherever you set up your screen + scraping beam. You tan three full-size hides into leather, buckskin, and fur rugs. You join a live group for guidance in-the-now + get access to an online resource space. You learn along with a crew of other amazing tanner-learners who’ve got your back.

Our Hide Club seasonality looks like this:

February-March is Hide Club: FOUNDATIONS. Building the roadmap to the craft.

May-June + September-October is Hide Club: SPECIALIZED. Honing in on the terrain deeper.

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Next live cohort: Hide Club: SPECIALIZED ~ Smoke-tanning is May-June, 2025.

DOORS OPEN NOW. New members welcome!

WHAT IT’S LIKE INSIDE HIDE CLUB:

  • A weekly live + recorded call on Zoom

  • Real time instruction as we tan 3 full-sized hides:

    (1) OIL-TANNED FISH LEATHER
    (2) BUCKSKIN CLOTH
    (3) SHEEPSKIN FUR RUG

  • An online resource space for recordings + instruction

  • A WhatsApp group chat to tackle troubleshooting in real time

  • You make your own classic tanned hides - learning on 3 different skins + honing your skills

  • Join a group of students and teachers who all learn from each other.

  • Your questions, risks, experiments - and yes, mistakes - will turn into your confidence.

Hide Club: SPECIALIZED Smoke-TANNING

MAY - JUNE, 2025
Weekly, Thursdays @ 4:30-6:30pm PT
Biweekly, Saturdays @ 10:30am-12:30pm PT

ABOUT OUR METHOD:

Smoke-tanning is one of three hide tanning categories, or methods. We name it after the ingredients that go into the hide. You’ll also hear this method called brain-tanning for the same reason. Smoke x fat. Together, they react on a molecular level within an animal hide + irrevocably change it forever. Once a hide is tanned, it is textile. It will never be skin again.

Smoke-tanning is the oldest + most earthen of all hide tannings methods. But seriously: not just of hide-craft but of any textile-craft in the world! Smoke-tanning hides predates weaving plant-based cloth by 100,000 years. Humans have been doing this for a long, long time. Every generation of humanity has smoked-tanned hides since we literally became human.

That kind of ancestral presence in a craft is powerful.

It means that when we work hides, we move our bodies the way they want to move. It means we enter a flow state, unique our personal rhythm with no rush, no hustle, just somatic attunement to the hide we work + a building of strength and skill in ourselves. It is embodied healing - without the fluff, without the trendiness. Hide tanning is hard work, and rich reward. Somatically, psycho-emotionally, and communally: hide tanning + especially smoke-tanning brings us home.

make hide tanning your own

How to Join:

  1. Choose your sliding-scale tuition

  2. Get the materials kit from us or bring your own

Softening a Smoke-tanned Sheepskin

How to Make the Most of the Club:

  1. Get our recommended tools. See here.

  2. Order a materials kit from us - or BYO hides

  3. Catch calls live or watch recordings soon after

  4. Carve out time in your calendar + make it your hide time

Returning Hide Club members:

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

Note: you’ll need to source or purchase a fish fillet to learn how to skin it + make fishskin leather in this cohort

What we’re tanning

SHEEPSKIN RUG

FISHSKIN LEATHER

BUCKSKIN CLOTH

What you get in HIDE CLUB

  • You’ll know the natural chemistry underlying leather creation

  • You’ll learn the difference between tanning fur-on versus grain-on hides

  • 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

Our Schedule

Thursday sessions are 4:30-6pm PT | 7:30pm-9pm ET

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

Thursday, May 8

Intros + preparing fishskin leather

Saturday, May 10

Finalizing fishskin leather

Thursday, May 15

Preparing sheepskins

Thursday, May 22

Tanning sheepskins

Saturday, May 24

Tanning sheepskins

Sunday, May 24

Finalizing sheepskins

Thursday, May 29

Preparing for buckskin

Thursday, June 5

Break! No live call.

Thursday, June 12

Guest speaker TBA

Saturday, June 14

Tanning buckskins

Sunday, June 15

Tanning buckskins

Thursday, June 19

Smoking buckskins

Saturday, June 28

Finishing buckskins

Sunday, June 29

Closing: review + open Q&A

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 members

  • “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

your sliding scale tuition

Flexibility for accessibility  

Tier 1

$299 CAD
$208 USD

This price is for you if, for ex…

  • you struggle to meet necessities, such as paying 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
$243 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
$278 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

 FAQs

  • Thursday sessions are 90-120 minutes. Saturday sessions are 120 minutes.

  • Yes. Every call is recorded and available in our online space for one year after Hide Club ends.

    • 2 full-sized, salted hides

    • framing string + needle

    • Calx (lime powder)

    • leather oil

    • protective gloves

    • citric acid

    • salt

    • pH indicator liquid

    • the lumber for building your simple at-home equipment (we’ll give you a short list + directions on how to source it). two litres/quarts of white vinegar

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

    • a standard 5- or 6-gal bucket

    • our recommended tools

    • 10-15 lbs of tannins - either harvest these yourself from trees with our instructions before September, or purchase them from our recommended suppliers or your own source. Details in the online space after registration.

    • you CAN bring your own hides, you are not required to purchase a materials kit

  • The main instructor is Mara Cur.

    Our tech artisan is Bonnie Klohn.

    We host guest speakers every year and we will have two speakers this cohort!

  • Yes, you can provide your own goat or sheep hides or a small deer. Hides for this cohort need to be around 3 ft in length and no more.