Salmon skin tanned with olive oil and made into a vest. Cap made from pike skin. Hat made from bark tanned salmon skin.
through out the world. In areas where there has been a laialck of species variation,
fish skin was seen as a valuable and practical resource. While visiting an Inuit group
in Northern Canada I saw shoes made with shanks of salmon skin and soles of seal skin.
I learned that thin fish skin is tanned through a process using urine from a baby boy
still nursing, while thicker fish skin is tanned using urine from an adolescent boy whose voice is changing. I became interested in these traditional methods and started to experiment when I came home.
Today I tan most of my fish skin with tree bark or rapeseed oil.
For those of you who are interested in having a hat or other personal request made from a big catch, you can freeze the fish skin. Then bring it to me and I can tan the fish skin and sew it to your wishes.