TANNERY
ORGANIC - TRADITIONAL
Tanning - one of our oldest crafts is becoming a lost art…
Leather is now mostly produced in China, or Bangladesh
by mass scale processing using an array of toxic chemicals including Chromium..
Not only does the industry negatively effect the environment, poisoning the water
it is also harmful to the people working in these factories
and even those wearing these unnaturally processed garments.
Once upon a time we would have made all our clothes, shoes, bedding
and accessories such as tool covers from this ancient craft
using the ‘waste’ product of the hunting and food system
every bit of the animal was honoured and used,
not to mention the scraps from the green woodworkers
tree bark was the main source of tannins
the astringent natural chemical used in preserving animal skins
hence the name tanning!
These days animals are slaughtered on mass with much being discarded,
Whilst other materials are shipped abroad in due to cheaper monetary cost
(Due to lower working conditions and standards)
but what is the cost to the earth?
In years gone by you would have found a tanner on the edge of every village and in some countries there is still a tradition of tanning,
such as Morocco, Sweden and Norway.
When Scott first returned with this knowledge fresh from Sweden and Norway, there was hardly anyone in the UK reviving these skills.
Now there are more and more here’s some of our favourites:
Run by Jayne and Jessy in Devon & North Wales - They run amazing camps a few time a year.
Peter Annin runs tanning courses and a fantastic ancestral skills gathering in the Scottish Highlands every summer.
Patric McGlinthy is an absolute legend and runs weekend introduction courses and more in outdoor skills.
Here at The Radical Regenerative Rewilder’s,
we work with local hunters and trappers to use the culled grey squirrel, rabbits, and roe deer populations.
as well as collecting road kills
to process for meat, skins
and other ethical,
ecologically sound products.
We run mobile workshops to bring an ethical organic tannery to various festivals and events as part of our craft village.
We have a display stall and run workshops and demonstrations on making sheepskins, deer skin, fish-skin tanning and natural dying.
We also teach in depth courses on making leather and fur-on skins at our home Kensley Sheds in the Forest of Dean.
