Smoke-tanned Buckskin: Kootenay Workshop
This is a four-day | in-person | hands-on course.
You receive a fresh hide salvaged from waste during hunting season, learn to tan it yourself, and take home your transformed creation at the end: the soft + supple cloth textile known as Smoke-tanned Buckskin.
Our natural tanning method is Smoke-tanning, also known as brain-tanning. Smoke-tanning is the most ancient method of hide tanning in the world: Hide. Fat. Smoke. Combined together, these ingredients transform a skin into fabric, and it is forever changed.
Buckskin is the product of this method, a velvety soft material similar to linen, but as strong as leather. Your buckskin cloth can be used at home as a throw, blanket, alter cloth, adornment; it can be turned into clothing, tote bags, purses. It is a material that will last a lifetime.
This is a private hide course, organized by Greta Hamilton. Please direct all questions to Greta at mgretahamilton@gmail.com
Dates: May 30 to June 2, 2025
Schedule: 10am to 3-4pm each day
Location: Bear Spring Eco-Retreat. Beasley, BC; territory of the Sinixt First Nation
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Cost: $300 CAD (limited subsidized spots); $350 (regular cost)
Registration deadline: May 20, 2025
After registering, save this link + your login details. Log into the online space created just for us - for details on location, camping, recommended gear, and integration.
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See below for details.
Click “learn more” to register in 1 or 3 payments.
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Course Details
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Integration
The natural tanning Process
Smoke-tanning is our method.
Hand-softening is our technique.
Fat x smoke is our tanning agent.
Your hand-tanned, quality buckskin cloth is the result.
Day One: meet at the barn at Bear Spring Eco Retreat + choose your fresh deer skin. Wet-scrape the hide to remove layers of skin. This is the hard work day. We provide waterproof aprons. Wear outdoor shoes + layers for all weather.
Day Two: in the morning, apply fat to the hides, with the traditional; ingredient of animal brain. We source pork brain from foodgrade suppliers. In the afternoon, start opening + drying your hide. We dry-scrape our hides until they are plush.
Day Three: smoke your hide. This is the ultimate moment of the tanning process, when the hide becomes truly “tanned” through the natural chemical reaction of smoke + fat. Your buckskin turns from a bright white to a golden colour.
Day Four: the hide softening day. Take your plush, smoked rawhide, rehydrate it, and then soften it until it is fully dry. We’ll soften by hand + with helpful tools and equipment.
Our Venue
Bear Spring Eco Resort
Thank you to host Solita at Bear Spring for sharing your home with our hide tanning crew.
Click the photo above to go to Bear Spring’s website and to book your glamping spot (optional).
The LAnd we are tanning on
Sinixt Confederated Tribes
“Our land tells the story of our people. The Sinixt are people of the Arrow Lakes. In our language, the people of the place of the Bull Trout. We never crossed the Monashee mountain range to the Okanagan and our Okanagan neighbours didn’t cross to our land, except to trade. The mountains are over 500km north to south, and 150 east to west. The highest summit is over 3000 meters, and the area is densely forested. Instead, we always followed the water – north and south.”
The workshop is organized with the support of the Sinixt Confederacy. If you are a Sinixt member, contact Greta Hamilton or James Baxter to join us at no cost.
Our hidework is also supported with gratitude by the Columbia Basin Trust Arts and Culture program.
Please direct all questions to Greta at: mgretahamilton@gmail.com
