Intro to Sheepskin Tanning: Nov 22, 2024
Friday, November 22, 2024 | 11am-1pm PT
A live + recorded Zoom call on working with these versatile animal hides
Step-by-step of the hide tanning process
pairing tanning methods to your climate
sheepskin-specific techniques + troubleshooting
little-known textiles + historical uses of sheepskin (that we can make!)
history of human-ovis relationships + sheep's impact on material culture
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Intro to Sheepskin Tanning
“These remarkable animals fed us, clothed us, changed our diet and language, and shaped our cities and rural landscapes.”
— Sally Coulthard, A Short History of the World According to Sheep
We teach hide tanning through the lens of craftsmanship: creating structure + relaying the foundational principles that are building blocks to a craft. We make it make sense. Treating hide tanning as both reverential animist practice + functional system. In Intro to Sheepskin Tanning, we’ll be leading with this while focusing squarely on this specific animal: the highly versatile, often underrated, prolific sheep.
This is a how-to guide: what to do when you source a fresh sheep skin and want to start tanning
This is methodology: the 4 natural hide tanning methods + how to apply them to sheep skins
This is a history lesson: how humans came to co-habitate with this unlikely animal + how culture was forever changed. How human migration + colonization brought domestic sheep to every continent (except Antarctica) - and what this means for us living now
This is a deep dive: the quirks + traits of sheep hides, the pros and cons of each tanning method, and how to choose a leather textile for your climate and the products you want to make
Resources + follow-up will be posted in this online space after our call.
Traditional hide tanning for contemporary life
Tanning hides builds strength + skill. We are healthier and more capable when we move through the same motions our ancestors did for millennia, giving us a level of resilience that feels easy.
We also build knowledge when we tan hides, which is less well-studied and often overlooked.
What happens when our outlook incorporates the more-than-human world? What happens when we go through our regular day with the knowledge of what came before us, how our infrastructure was seeded, and how the precursors to everyday materials are made?