The Sheepskin Tanning Program
Learn to tan sheepskins online
at your own pace
in two hide tanning methods
We weren’t born just to consume
We are here to create
There is a world beyond scrolling content
Beyond buying into brand identity
It’s the world that’s always been here
And is always waiting for us
Hide tanning brings us back to that world
To the fullness of making something with our hands
To the sacredness of touching the more-than-human
And then it does something unexpected…
Hide tanning helps us thrive
Ancient movement calibrates our nervous system
Working in flow state supports emotional and mental health
Interacting with a hide lights up something deep in our bones
In other words, hide tanning heals
An online library of over 70 how-to videos on tanning sheepskins
With voice-over step-by-step instruction from a professional tanner
A week-by-week guided walkthrough that you can do at any time, taking as long as you need
Two distinct hide tanning methods that can be done separately or together
Written resources on methodology and the science of hide tanning
This is the
Sheepskin Tanning Program:
Learn these two methods ⬇️
You’ll have endless creativity in your hide tanning practice:
I’m Mara and this is Fern + Roe Folk Tannery.
We tan hides and teach internationally from Vancouver Island, BC.
Every hide is tanned by hand. Every tanning ingredient comes directly from the earth.
I met hide tanning 15 years ago when I was living on a small island in the north Pacific.
I had dropped out of university, disillusioned that my environmental studies degree was more about how to perform in a board meeting than about how to tend the land.
On that island, I was involved in a deer cull - a hunting project to remove invasive deer from an ecosystem that was damaged by their presence.
It was my first experience of ecological restoration.
And it was done through hunting - in other words, through direct participation with the land.
It showed me that death is something we can steward, ethically and respectfully.
It showed me that humans can repair ecological damage.
And it showed me that hide tanning helps us live our lives profoundly well.
Hide tanning doesn’t have to look like this:
✘ spending hours and hours scraping
✘ breaking your back lifting and softening
✘ getting bald patches from wool falling out
✘ not knowing when a hide is done
✘ relying on store-bought ingredients
✘ using expensive power tools
✘ measuring out complicated recipes
✘ winding up with stiff leather
Instead, it can be knowable and doable.
So that hide tanning can do for you what it does best:
get you grounded
connected to the land
and aligned with how humans move and live best.
What You’ll Experience in the Sheepskin Tanning Program:
✔️ Go from feeling tentative about the tanning process to certain of each step
✔️ Receive the nourishing and strengthening of hide tanning movements in your body
✔️ Connect with the more-than-human world in a real, pragmatic relationship
✔️ Increase your resilience and self-efficacy - our ability to take on anything and thrive
Who This is For:
✔️ You know the profound meaning in animal and craft stewardship
✔️ You want to build physical strength and create something with your hands
✔️ You care for the land and want to engage in tangible reciprocity
✔️ You want guidance in a craft so you don’t have to do it alone
Important Notes:
Your purchase includes lifetime access to this digital product
Tools, hides, and ingredients are not included in the price, but are available for Fern + Roe students any time
You’ll want to build a scraping beam and a hide frame to begin tanning (we show you how in the course!)
What’s Included
✔️ Over 70 how-to videos
✔️ Start to finish guidance: from equipment to tanning to caring for sheepskin leather
✔️ Tips on sourcing hides and preserving hides before you tan
✔️ In-depth instruction on two tanning methods: bark-tanning and combination alum-smoke-tanning
✔️ Exclusive access to purchase untanned sheep skins from Fern + Roe for your own practice
Check out What you’ll Make ⤵︎
Anyone can tan a hide.
(yes that means you)
Our ancestors practiced this craft for millennia
(and they didn’t have power tools or shelf-stable orange liquids).
High-quality + plush sheepskins aren’t made with complicated ingredients
or through a one-thousand-step process.
They’re made by a systematic approach
- with clear knowledge of how hide tanning works.
Know your Tanning Ingredients + Tools
If you’re thinking about hide tanning, then hide tanning is for you
Hide tanning is as ancient as our first ancestors.
It is humanity’s first craft - how we clothed ourselves to travel continents and thrive.
But it’s more important today literally than ever.
I mean that.
Our ancestors didn’t have cell phones, infinite scroll, and keyboards.
They didn’t have perfectly-warm houses.
But they had stamina. And strength. And yes even regulated nervous systems.
They got all that from craft - like hide tanning.
We need hide tanning not just to make plush sheepskins (which you will)
But to hold onto our humanity in an unstable world.
Wet-scraping - the first step
Stretching a smoke-tanned sheepskin