White Buckskin: Chamois Cloth | March 15-16, 2024
This is a two-day | in-person | hands-on course.
You receive a fresh hide salvaged from waste, learn to tan it yourself, and take home your transformed creation at the end: the soft + supple cloth textile known as White Buckskin or Chamois cloth. Scroll ⬇️ for details.
Schedule: 11am to 4-5pm each day
Location: North Saanich, W̱SÁNEĆ Peninsula
Click “learn more” to register in 1 or 3 payments. You’ll be asked to create an account first.
Scroll for details.
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Your Hide Camp Details Here
White Buckskin is a soft leather cloth. You can turn it into breathable clothing, use it for beading, make handbags and lightwear goods from it. It is water-resistant: it will take on water but will not revert back into untanned hide when wet. So it’s not your best bet for rain-gear specifically, more for indoors/outdoor soft uses.
Our natural tanning method is Mineral-tanning, also known as alum-tawing. Mineral-tanning is Fern + Roe’s modern adaptation to the historical chamois cloth, which was made by immersing a hide in cod oil to emerge white and fluffy. Like many land-based art forms, this oil-based tanning method declined with the decline of cod fish stocks due to over harvesting in the 1800s-1900s. Cod is gratefully making a comeback, but we are sticking with our local version, a sustainable alternative to re-create this ancient cloth.
By pairing hide with alum, we achieve a white buckskin that is more resilient than simple unsmoked cloth, a hybrid textile that is ultra soft, easy to stitch and bead, and something you’ll want to drape yourself in.
What is White Buckskin?
The natural tanning Process
Mineral-tanning is our method.
Hand-softening is our technique.
Alum x fat is our tanning agent.
Your hand-tanned, quality white buckskin cloth is the result.
Day One: meet at the studio at 11am + choose your fresh sheep skin. These hides are salvaged from local meat farms, and normally go to waste. Wet-scrape the hide to remove layers of skin. Rinse the hide in water + vinegar to prepare it for softening.
This is the hard work + wet day. We provide waterproof aprons. Wear outdoor shoes + layers for all weather.
Day Two: in the morning, apply minerals and fat to the hides. These natural elements sink into the protein matrix of a hide (ie the building blocks of skin) to coat it from the inside out. Next, soften the hide until it is dry.
And voila, at the end of the second day, you’ve made White Buckskin : Chamois cloth.
Staying on the land
You are welcome to stay on the land during the hide tanning course (affectionately known as a “hide camp”).
We have unlimited camping spots available in a secluded meadow + The Loft guest suite above the horse barn.
Spending down time with your new tanning cohort makes the weekend take on a whole different dimension. It’s a true retreating out of time and into an immersion of nature, community, and ancestral reverance.
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A handbuilt suite in the old hay loft of the farm barn. Watch the horses, goats, and sheep from your balcony.
Amenities:
- kitchenette
- double bed + pull-out sofa
- dining area
- composting toilet
- clawfoot bathtub
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BOOK CAMPING HERE
For $24 CAD/night per person, stay in the meadow along with other participants of the hide course.Amenities:
- electrical outlet for charging phones
- water
- indoor bathroom with sink, toilet, and shower
- indoor fridge + food storage
How to Make the Most of your Hide Camp
Get lots of sleep
Leave your routines behind
Show up on time
Be okay being a beginner
Work hard, rest well
Bring a notebook if you’re a note-taker, a camera if you’re a photo-taker
Visit the farm animals and the garden
Wander the beautiful WSANEC Peninsula, visit the ocean, spend time in our amazing local community
What to Wear
Clothes for all weather
Outdoor or waterproof shoes/sandals
What to Bring
Camp chair or blanket
Water
Lunch and snacks
Personal knife (we like Mora brand, for ex)
Mineral-tanning Gallery
Check out each step in the tanning process below by clicking the arrows left or right!
