Tanning Camp: Bring Your Own Projects for Returnees Or Rabbitskin Tanning Workshop for Beginners

Bringing together the natural leather tanning community, we're offering this camp as an opportunity for previous students to practice their skills AND for beginners to learn in a village environment.

INTRODUCTION

We pay our respects to the Yaegl People whose country we will gather.  

FOR RETURNEES / PREVIOUS STUDENTS - ARRIVE THURSDAY AFTERNOON ONWARDS

Are you a previous student of one of our or other recognised natural leather tanning instructors?

Students from other organisations welcome.

Join us for this community skills weekend in the bush, processing hides with others.  An opportunity to spend time together rehoning your skills, sharing your recent projects and experiments.

Got a half finished sheepskin? Need to smoke a rabbitskin?

Bring your own skins to work on, tools and materials, camping equipment, food and water (very limited water onsite).

If you're requiring any tools or materials please put a call out on the group chat once booked to share with another tanner or get advice on where to source what you need.

Bring your own camping equipment, food and water.

FOR BEGINNERS - ARRIVE FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Join us for a weekend of natural leather tanning together. As beginners we will start you off with a rabbit furskin to tan. Arrive and setup on Friday evening to commence your project Saturday morning and finish by Sunday afternoon.

If you've done a rabbitskin furskin before but don't have another project to work on, you're welcome to come and either support others with their projects, do a second rabbitskin or learn about tanning fur-off rabbitskin "buckskin" leather and spinning with the removed hair fibres.

Using oft-wasted animal skins, to clothe ourselves is the ultimate in self-sufficiency and sustainability.  Respecting the whole animal and its sacrifice, in the way that our ancestors did, continues the tradition for future generations.  Be a part of rediscovering these skills, as keepers of the ways that speak to a simpler life, connected to nature and the land. 

Doing away with chrome based tanning solutions , we instead harness the alchemical magic of a few simple natural ingredients; fat, smoke and elbow grease.

Leather tanning is not for the faint of heart, but definitely for the courageous, determined and patient. It is also a wonderful community activity.  Taking the skin of an animal and scraping, soaking, softening and smoking it is a huge task and done better and more happily in the company of others.

Bring your own camping equipment, food and water.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

We will teach the wet-scrape method of fat tan, using emulsified fats to transform raw rabbitskin into a rabbit furskin.  Supple and soft, this material is durable, breathable and versatile, which could also be used for making trims, coverings and heaps more.

Topics covered

- What is leather and the context of fat tan in natural leather tanning

- Wetscrape vs. dryscrape

- Obtaining and storing skins

- Tools and equipment you need to get started at home

- Basic materials and chemistry

- Common problems and how to solve them

- Adapting these techniques to other animal skins

Process

• Fleshing and membraning

• Dressing

• Softening

• Smoking

• Washing

• Storage and Care

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Ei Yang is an enthusiastic natural leather tanning instructor that first learnt how to braintan buckskin in New Jersey in 2012.  She has since brought her curiousity to tan various local animal skins such as fish, rabbit, goat, sheep and deer.  She runs Backyard Buckskin from her home in Northern NSW.  Instagram: @backyardbuckskin

Vanessa Wilding is a craftswoman of many natural materials, including the skins of animals. She is the cofounder of GreenwingEarthcrafts and co-facilitates nature based programs in NNSW. Her journey into natural tanning started in 2019 with teachers Ei Yang and subsequently Daniel Sainty. She is passionate about supporting people in a journey back to nature by becoming intimately involved in crafting useful and beautiful items with materials collected directly from nature. FB GreenwingEarthcrafts

Melissa Fire Horse is a passionate womens mysteries advocate. She is an accredited teacher of the four seasons journey with the School of Shamanic Womancraft. She is a fasciliatator of women's camps and the rights of passage of menopause. Melissa's teachers of natural tanning are Dan Sainty, Ei Yang and Woniya Dawn Thibeault.

And absolutely loves sharing and learning about this ancestral knowledge of tanning ❤️.

ABOUT THE VENUE

Held on Yaegl Country in the North Coast NSW, we are grateful to run gatherings and programs at this beautiful bush location, brimming with wildlife on gentle coastal land. 

Accommodation is camping, please bring a tent, sleeping mat and sleeping pad. Bring your own food.

Please do not bring canines and felines as there is much native wildlife at the venue.

THE BUSHCRAFT VILLAGE

The Bushcraft Village is all about working together in community to offer amazing events and experiences to grow the skills and capacity of the collective.

COURSE ENQUIRIES

For any questions regarding the program, please email thebushcraftvillagecoop@gmail.com directly, as our responses to your enquiries through Humanitix often end up in your spam folders. If you have already messaged us and have not received a response, please check your spam folder. Thankyou.