Tanning the Salmon Back Home
*limit of 5 students*
This offering is more than just a tanning class. It is a living gift to the Salmon People, to show them honor, prayer, and beauty, and to sing them back to our waters with love. We will cocreate a deeply rooted experience as a deep call to the immense magick of these beings. This is a ritual for the health of the land, her plants and animals, and her people, past present and future.
We will show you all of the steps to turn a raw meaty salmon skin into strong, supple, leather using only water, bark, olive oil, and eggs. This methodology can easily be applied to any skin, including furs.
The history of bark tanning is both beautiful and sorrowful, and we will explore the depths of ethnographical evidence of this way of leather making from around the world, including our specific ancestral lineages. Fish skin is wonderful in that it is a very Scandinavian tradition, so those of us with that heritage can claim it with pride!
Reclaiming the ability to make our own clothing, bedding, rugs, and more is bigger than part of taking back our sovereignty. It is an act of remembrance, of love and devotion to these animals and to our ancestors who walked this path. It is a step towards creating a life that doesn’t rely on industrial resource extraction and slaves in other countries. It is a way to take responsibility for your needs without contributing to horrific amounts of pollution, destruction, global trade systems, and the Empire. AND it is completely pure- no chemicals, no formaldehyde, no nasty neurotoxins and EDC’s leaching into your skin poisoning our bodies and the land.
As animists, we will share our unique ways of asking different plants, minerals, other animals, elementals, and more to help infuse our process with specific attributes and medicine, taking the traditional tanning method further by calling in more of the wild world.
Topics Covered
Each student will choose a salmon skin and go through the steps of fleshing, scaling, washing, and soaking the hide in a mimosa bark solution.
We will have skins that have been previously bark tanned, that each student will then finish by testing, rinsing, dressing, and softening. In this way each person will have the knowledge and practice of finishing their own hide when it is done tanning (4-7 days later).
We will discuss local plant sources of tannins, and how to collect, store, and use them for bark tanning
We will research and share our findings of our own ancestral connections to salmon (or another type of fish that was local to your people), the folklore, magick, and culture that surrounds the salmon and explore how we can be in service to them and their teachings.
Each person will take home a salmon skin in solution to finish at home.
Traditional leather isn’t only about creating a beautiful hide in the ways of old. It is about exploring our relationship to the animal world, what we have to offer them, and the alchemical transformations in ourselves and our practice that happens when we dedicate ourselves in this way. We will employ song and story to help traverse the mythic realms of salmon, our ancestral connections and leathercraft, weaving webs of mystery and indebtedness across the ether of our being.
Harmony has been teaching tanning classes for about a decade, and has tanned almost everything from rats to buffalo. She has spent time travelling in Sweden, England, The Isle of Mann, and Ireland, researching the skincraft traditions of her ancestors in order to help heal the fracture of these skills. She is grateful to have studied and learned from many elder teachers and is excited to share the synthesis of her years of dedication with anyone willing to help keep these skills alive.
Class Includes:
1 day of hands-on instruction with Harmony Cronin
preliminary emails with research, ideas, and preparations
one locally native caught Olympic Peninsula salmon, in bark solution
knowledge and practice in dressing and softening the skin once it is finished (using everyday kitchen supplies)
follow up email with basic outline of tanning principles and methodology
Tuition - Sliding Scale $200-500
A non-refundable deposit of 100.00 is required to hold your spot
Email us at gatheringwaysschool@gmail.com to register.