This was by far my most challenging week yet. We spent three long days engaged in an activity that I had never wanted to do in the first place, and which was the most physically challenging and energetically grueling of anything we’ve done so far. But, as I’ve reminded myself before, I got myself into this program and it’s up to me to get out of it as much as I can. Hide tanning is tough work- messy, stinky, exhausting work, particularly with three solid days of rain and sometimes snow. In order to get through it I had to leave my bad attitude at home and just throw myself into it, all of it. And I did- I myself became messy, stinky, and exhausted but I learned so much.

Day one we braved not only the cold winter rain but the mess and stench of deer skins purchased from a local butcher. Our task that day was to scrape off layers of hair, epidermis, remaining flesh, and epidermis from the underlying deer skins. It takes a lot of muscle and yet gentle care to take just the right amount off, all of this made more difficult with cold wet hands. We also made sure to show respect for these animals whom we see regularly. It was a powerful process for many of us who’ve never been involved in the work of killing our own food or making our own clothes. I valued this experience all the more for these reasons.
After a night of soaking our hides we faced day two with pieces of material that more resembled giant gobs of bread dough than anything once living. Just in case day one wasn’t grueling or gross enough, we spent a good part of the day alternately wringing out our wet hides and soaking them in pork brains. This process prepared the way for the drying, softening, and stretching that consumed the rest of the long day. In an uncharacteristic situation for us, we spent the afternoon in an unventilated room so hot we could barely think straight- pulling, rubbing, pulling some more- so that the hide would be as soft and pliable as possible when it dried. By the end of the day we’d seen our bread dough become soft white buckskin.
Day three was finally a little less arduous. We sewed a couple hides together and placed them over buckets of smoky coals to finally and officially tan them. Huddled under a tarp with the rain spattering loudly above us, we watched closely to make sure the smoke was sufficient to tan the hides but didn’t burst into flame and ruin all our hard work. By Friday afternoon an exhausted but jubilant group of residential students had beautiful pieces of tanned buckskin.

After having completed this week, I can’t say if I will tan another hide. If I do, it definitely won’t be in February. I can say that I am so glad I had this opportunity to learn and experience this process, and now have yet another new creation to show for it.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 7:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.