FISH SKIN TANNING, DYEING & SEWING

Learn to Tan, Dye and Sew Fish Skins

For thousands of years, humans have been turning raw skin into usable leather products using fundamental techniques and materials. Learn to use these techniques to tan and dye fish skins with materials readily available in the environment around you!

Fish skins are easy to acquire, small enough to fit in a jar, and come in an incredible variety of patterns and textures. This makes them a great entry into the world of tanning, as they are easy to tan almost anywhere, from your garden to your kitchen counter!

This course will cover the basics of vegetable tanning fish skins using tannins to produce surprisingly soft, strong, and durable leather.

The subjects included in the course are:

-Sourcing skins

-Scraping and scaling,

-Making and timing the tan baths,

-Tanning stages,

-The importance of pH,

-Testing tanned-ness, and

-Lots of time for questions and answers!

Using previously tanned fish skins, you will learn to produce six different colours from natural dyes: cream, yellow, blue, green, red, and black. We will cover how to make the dye baths and their timings, how to test for colour, how to wash and dry the skins, and, finally, how to dress and soften!

Of course, this experience wouldn’t be complete without creating something with fish skin! In between tanning and dyeing, we will pattern and sew a small pouch or bag to create a usable work of art using fish skin and brain-tanned leather. Though this course will use Salmon skins, many types of fish are usable, and samples of different species will be available for future inspiration!

In addition to enthusiastic instruction, we 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 own knowledge of tanning!

Please join us for a course sure to contain plenty of memorable moments, lots of practical information, and, provided you put in the work, one that will see you heading home with a set of uniquely beautiful, traditionally tanned and dyed fish skins!

Additional Information:

Duration: 4 days (Thursday 09:00 am - Sunday 4:00 pm)

Max number of participants: 12

Prerequisites: None

Food: Please bring your own breakfast and lunch - dinner is included.

Location: Caravaca, Spain

Transportation:

• Airport Pick-up: We can grab you from Murcia or Alicante airport for €30 to cover gas. Please let us know a few days early if you need a lift!

• Public Transport: You can take a bus to Caravaca. Just remember the train only goes to Murcia.

Payment: You can pay by credit card, use one of our gift cards, or pay over time with PayPal Pay Later.

Host: Sociedad de Estudios Historiológicos y Etnográficos

Venue:

Info is coming.

Accommodation:

There are four rooms available for £30 for the whole course, or you can camp for £15. You can pay on-site.

Included: All course materials, coffee/tea, and dinner

Not included: Off-site Accommodation

Instructor: Theresa Emmerich Kamper

Cancellation Policy:

We put a lot of effort into these courses and travel time, so please read our cancellation terms carefully before booking.

If you change your mind within 21 days (3 weeks) of signing up, you’ll get a full refund. After that grace period, if you cancel more than 8 weeks before the course, you’ll get 75% back. If it’s less than 8 weeks before the start date, we can’t offer a refund. (If you booked last-minute and have an issue, reach out and we’ll chat about it case-by-case!)

A bit about me:

I'm an avid practitioner of traditional living skills and of all kinds of primitive technology. My interest came in part from growing up in the USA's Rocky Mountains, where backpacking, hunting, and fishing are deeply rooted in the culture. This passion led me to the academic field of Experimental Archaeology, where I earned a PhD from the University of Exeter in the UK.

My work has been featured in both documentaries and popular TV shows, including Alone Season 8 and Surviving the Stone Age. I've been tanning skins using traditional methods for over 30 years. Learning to tan was a natural offshoot of my desire to use as much of an animal as possible, and it had the added bonus of producing a beautiful end product.

In my instruction, I share a wide range of information—from the intricate details of skin morphology to helpful tips for dealing with the numerous, frustrating problems often encountered when you're first learning to tan.