Adventures in Tanning My Hide!
Journal Entry 03, June 15, 2023
In my obsession with finding a way to reclaim "no kill" alpaca hides (i.e., hides from animals not raised for meat), I wanted to better understand a non-toxic, natural hide tanning process. I mentioned this to a friend, who sent me a link to an upcoming workshop in Flagstaff, Arizona, which was part of the city's 2023 Flag Wool & Fiber Festival weekend. I immediately signed up for the workshop. Thus is the story of how I ended up attending a 2-1/2 day a Churro Sheep tan hiding workshop led by Ben Begay, a Navajo sheepherder, weaver, & hide tanner extraordinaire. Ben grew up seeped in an agropastoral-based lifeway, living among his grandmother's flock knowing each of them by name. (Lifeway is a new term for me. I'd have called it lifestyle. I like lifeway much better.) In time Jay inherited her flock, which is known for its fleece quality.
According to Jay, the sheep are a sacred part of life & enable the tribe to maintain an agropastoral way of life. The Churro Sheep are raised for their fiber used in the Navajo yarns & weavings, for their hides, & for their meat, both for the tribe's food sustenance & to sell commercially. The hides are skinned during the seasonal butchering process & preserved to tan later.
DAY1. Prepping the Hides/Pelts
The workshop site was set up in a fenced courtyard behind a building with an external water faucet Jay attached hoses to, an outside electrical outlet used to run the washing machine Jay brought. Jay also set up a 2-burner camp stove he to used to heat buckets of water. There were several portable conference tables attendees - two to each table - used to process our hides on. Thankfully, portable tent-tops were arranged over the tables, which protected us from the direct sun & the mid-day rainstorms.
The first task of the day was to choose a hide. Ben had two stacks to choose from. One stack had rather large hides (5-6 ' long); the other stack had smaller hides (around 4' long). Because I didn't know what I was getting into, I chose a hide from the stack containing the smaller hides.
Each hide had the sheep's intact, unwashed wool on one side (the pelt side) & the stiff leather hide on the other. The hide side was caked with a thin layer of dried, non-iodized salt. The hides are salted directly after skinning, otherwise the fiber will start falling off right away and mold will set in. He mentioned he's also, on occasion, laid the hide hide-side up directly after skinning (if it's warm outside) & let the flies clean up the hide instead of salting it. But he cautioned this approach can make the hide brittle if left in the sun too long.
Jay directed us how to scrub the salt off the hides using sharp knifes, but before we started, he first asked us each to introduce ourselves & why we were attending the workshop. As we chose & settled into a place at one of the tables, I found myself seated next to a delightful, exuberant 20-something year old who briefly shared his Navajo origin stories. He introduced himself as Tyrrell, a 6th-generation Navajo weaver, spinner, dyer, fiber artist, & sheepherder. I was deeply appreciative of his openness. After our intros, we all settled in desalting our respective hides while pleasant crosstalk amongst the group ensued.
Jay used a camping stove with two large stew pots to heat the water (filled from a hose) to a near-boil before pouring the hot water into one of several large buckets. Once each of us finished desalting our hide, we soaked & washed our individual hides/pelts in one of the large buckets filled with warm water & dish soap. It took several iterations & much patience to wash & rinse our hide & pelts until the water ran clear. After the water ran clear, we emptied our bucket of water, placed our hide on a bench & hand pressed as much water out of it as possible. Then each of us loaded our hide - one at a time - into the washing machine & ran the spin cycle to remove even more water. After the spin cycle, we shook our hides to get as much vegetative matter out of it as possible.
We returned with our newly cleaned hides to our tables & started the fleshing process. The fleshing process removes fat and membranes from the hide side. Each of us tried a variety of tools to do this (knives, rocks, pumice stones, sticks) before settling on the one that worked best for each. This took the rest of the first day & most of the next. It's a long, slow process.
Before we left for the day, regardless of progress on the fleshing our hide, we each spread 6-8 beaten egg yolks onto the hide & left it on the tables hide-side up to cure overnight. Though we used eggs to soften pelts, other non-toxic options exist. Some of the options mentioned were sheep brains, or olive oil w crushed pumpkin seeds. Some tree barks were mentioned but are apparently used only on darker hides as the barks can color the hide & pelt.
As with all fiber arts, working with hides/pelts is a slow, meticulous process. I had an epiphany that interacting with plant & animal-based materials for hours on end is a form of slow-therapy that naturally unwinds our tangled angst & stress & serves to rebalance us. In today's hyper-paced-deluge of constant, electronic push-pull distractions & noise, the means of unwinding relentlessly offered via marketing, social media, & entertainment are fast-therapies & instant gratification: take a pill, go to happy hour, get high, workout while ingesting electronic sounds & media, veg out in front of the TV, etc. Though these can put the stress & anxiety that comes with a deluge of distractions on pause, none reconnects us to the natural world around us. The slow-therapy I experienced focused on the goal of simply softening the hide, cleaning & combing the pelt released my resistance to, impatience of, & focus on "how much longer will this take." From the time I first touched the hide/pelt I felt myself transitioning into of state of enjoying the sensate pleasures of the act - reconnecting my sense of touch & smell with a natural fiber & hide, feeling the breeze, hearing the birds, noticing the atmospheric changes of the mid-day rainstorms. As I felt the noises in my head evaporate, my goal shifted from "how long until it’s done" to noticing "how soft is it to my fingers & hands."
DAY2. Drying & Softening the Hide
The next day, I woke up remembering a wild & astounding dream from the night before. I quickly wrote it down in my "Little Book of Dreams" I keep by my nightstand. I mention it because in involved one of the attendees. I vowed not to share it unless there was a sign it would be appropriate.
Upon arriving we all got busy scraping the mostly-dried egg yolk layer off to loosen the membrane layer from the skin layer using our tool of preference. This is what we did. All. Day. Long. More slow-therapy!
As the day progressed, I realized I would not be taking home a finished hide & pelt. But realized I can throw it on the floor or across my table & work on it while I listen to news or music in the evenings. Hence, I'm seeing more slow-therapy in my future!
As we all started coming back to the class after a lunch break, Tyrrell Tapaha, my 20-something table mate from Day-1, asked if anyone wanted to see a Show-&-Tell he brought to class. Of course we did. With that, he unrolled one of his weavings & started to share its symbolism, story, & more of his philosophy as a Navajo Weaver. For Tyrrell, "each weaving has it's own life & is a story unto itself." Throughout his process, he & the fibers create the weaving together. This particular weaving was stunning in its blend of tradition & contemporary patterns & colors. It exquisitely wove together its story with profound transitions between parts of the story it presented.
As he was wrapping up his Show-&-Tell, answering our questions, I couldn't help staring at him, my jaw hanging. I said, "I'm going to tell you about a dream I had last night. I had told myself I wasn't going to share it unless there was a sign, & your Show-&-Tell was definitely a sign!" He looked at me curious, yet open as I began. "I dreamt you (Tyrrell) & I were sitting comfortably on a thick blanket on top of a giant pyramid (sans the pyramidion) facing each other. The pyramid was the room's only furniture in a mutual friend's (Jay's?) home. The friend was standing off to the side preparing for something unknown to me. The dimly lit room had a very tall (2-story) arched ceiling. As we quietly sat facing each other just waiting, a 4-6 foot wide portal opened in the ceiling. An intense (almost blinding), yet soothing beam of cosmic, sparkling light started engulfing Tyrrell. Though shocking (almost alarming as I'd never seen anything like this), the light was so pure & comforting it felt divine. As the light beam encircled Tyrrell, it slowly lifted him as he gently smiled - naked in cosmic purity - up into the heavenly sky." There the dream ended. We both smiled with a mutual understanding that I had witnessed - via dream-state - the potent, cosmically connected creations of his Navajo lifeway & tapestries.
I don't remember much about the rest of the day, but I know it involved lots of slow-therapy while continuing to soften my hide.
DAY 3. Playing with Wool
The last day was a half day. I decided to start working on the untouched pelt-side of the hide, since I knew I wouldn't finish either side during the workshop. Brushing & combing the pelt soon became my favorite part of the process, inducing me into slow-therapy mode almost instantly!
Jay mentioned he tanned his first hide at around 8 years old. I asked him how many hides he tans each year & he said between 30 to 40, usually only during spring & summer. Yikes. It looks like I'm only going to get thru one this year! He also gave me a quick overview on how to skin a hide. That's a topic for another Fibershed Adventure!
I'm forever grateful to Jay & the Churro Sheep hide I took home, & tanning workshop in which I learned the basics of the process & the value of slow-therapy. I received much more from the workshop than I ever imagined. Thank you, Jay!
Postscript:
I found out Tyrrell's weavings are coveted by collectors paying between $40 to $80 thousand for each. I understand why. You can follow him on Instagram @TyrrellTapaha
For more info about Navajo & their Churro Sheep, here's a link to The Navajo Lifeway, 27th Annual Sheep is Life Celebration, June 16 - 17, 2023
This sounds amazing, Bev-Sue! What an incredible opportunity and community of people.