DEER SKIN TANNING

Before the advent of modern tanning agents, humans were turning raw skin into usable leather products using fundamental techniques and materials. Learn to produce incredibly soft, strong, and durable leather from raw animal skin using one of humankind’s earliest tanning technologies! We will walk through the steps of this transformation, utilizing materials readily available in the surrounding environment.

This class will focus on tanning Deer Skin with a variation of fat tanning using lecithin as the dressing agent. Whilst not for the squeamish, the end product is worth the work! The class will cover desalinating preserved skins, de-fleshing, de-hairing, de-graining, and softening the skins, as well as

smoking them so they can be easily washed.

In addition to enthusiastic instruction, I provide comfortable, easy-to-use tools and detailed handouts covering the tanning process, as well as ethnographic anecdotes and a list of helpful literature for those who wish to further their…