Dorm
room Zine
By: J.Isaac
Tannery
Hair-on, woodchuck, tanned in mimosa.
Tea tanned tilapia fish skin.
Hair-on, deer leg skin, tanned in mimosa.
Hair-on, sheep skin. Tanned in mimosa.
Egg yoke, olive oil emulsion rubbed into oak bark (hair off) tanned deer skin.
Mineral tanned white fish.
Dedicated to those who are reclaiming Ancestral skills, may your path be cleared and all your teachers reveal themselves freely.
This zine includes pictures of the hide tanning process, including unalive animals.
*NOte: this is not a ‘‘How-To’ zine.
Dorm Rooms ^
Artist Unknown
Olive oil
Oak bark
A
C
Black tea
Oak gall
mimosa
B
Urine
D
E
F
A
C
B
D
E
F
Tilapia fish from the seafood section in Independent grocery store in Lac La Biche, Alberta
Black tea tanned fish skin - the art of observation.
Janey Changes Art + Ancestral skills on-line Foundations in fish skin leather class.
Tanned and dried tilapia fish skin, waiting to be softened.
On-line with instructor Matt Richards (from Traditional Tanners), adding lime to soaked deer skin to help remove hair and condition skin (use gloves when handling lime).
In the kitchen with Traditional Tanners on-line Foundational hide tanning class.
B
A
Soaked, fleshed, limed, scraped, rinsed, oak bark tanned, emulsified, deer skin. Ready to dry, soften, and oil.
Soaked, scraped, limed (to remove hair), rinsed deer skin, in dorm room kitchen sink.
C
D
A
B
c
D
Hair-on leg experiment, tanned in mimosa extract.
Dorm room window drying. Bark tan complete. Hair-on deer legs need to be scrapped and softened. Finished hairon deer leg hide.
Cleaning stinky-poopy sheep hides at local car wash for Matt’s Hair-on hide tanning class. Complete supply kit mailed to the dorm from Traditional Tanners in Oregon, USA.
Mimosas extract, for bark tanning.
Matt Richards on-line hairy hide class.
Drying hair-on tanned sheep hides in dorm room window.
Roadkill woodchuck, otherwise known as a road blessing.
Hair-on woodchuck hide tanned in mimosa extract.
Softened, hair-on woodchuck, flesh side.
I may have stored that folded up deer hide (marinating in deer brains), in my veggie crisper in my dorm room fridge - then again maybe I didn’t…
Maybe my friend Chantel and I picked up a roadkill beaver and tried to skin it in on the tailgate of her hubbies truck in the dorm parking lot - maybe we didn’t…
Maybe I have some porcupine claws wrapped up good and tight from Chantel in my dorm freezer because I haven’t given them to Lester yet - but maybe I don’t…
I might have dried my mineral tanned white fish skin on the dorm window, using Janey Change (from Art + Ancestral skills) window method… but maybe not…
Maybe I tired to make leather from brittle prickly pear cactus…or maybe I haven't have the chance to try that in the dorm room tannery yet… I may have tried to use stwen (traditional dried sockeye) skin for my online fish skin leather workshop with Janey…maybe I didn’t….
Thank you for supporting the Dorm Room Tannery at Prickly Pear Nation studio; your support is appreciated more than you’ll ever know. Follow along for more adventures:
Learn more about creating fish skin leather and the power and beauty of Ancestral skills at janeychang.ca
Learn more about on-line hide tanning classes at braintan.com
PS. don,t tell anyone I turned my dorm room into a tannery.