Natural Leather Working · Talcon Quinn・ Textiles
Workshop at a glance
Learn to draft patterns and sew with natural buckskin suede, while learning how leather is made.
Techniques
- Buckskin and Rawhide sewing with a scratch awl and buckskin thong
- Making raw hide
- Cordage making
- Class will discuss various forms of leather tanning, both naturally and commercially
Materials
- Naturally tanned buckskin
- Deer rawhide (naturally processed)
- Plant materials
Outcomes
- Rawhide sewing project.
- Buckskin amulet bag
- Buckskin side pouch
- Cordage from natural materials
- Knowledge: how leather is made both naturally and commercially
Artist Bio
Talcon Quinn is an Appalachian multi-media folk artist from Southeastern Ohio. She exclusively works with materials she sustainably harvests and ethically processes herself. This includes the leather she works with for her classes and her personal leather work. All hides are deer skin, obtained by a small local game processor who Talcon skins the deer for. All the deer are hunted by substance hunters to whom venison is a vital part of their diet. Talcon tans the deerskins using all natural, traditional methods that utilize the fat proteins in the deer’s organs and smoke. She also harvests bones from the deer for her hand made line of Appalachian jewelry. Talcon teaches an array of traditional folk arts/ways in Ohio and all around the county. Her primary disciplines being jewelry, traditional leather tanning, basketry, and Appalachian food/herbal traditions. In addition to teaching, Talcon promotes events celebrating such cultural arts in her area. She sells her jewelry, folk remedies, and other arts at festivals, popup markets, and shops throughout the region. Talcon deeply enjoys being outdoors, connecting with her community, and working toward collectively inspiring a better prescription of Appalachia. talcon-quinn.com
Workshop Description
This natural leather working workshop will provide students with hands-on instruction on how to sew with naturally tanned brain-tanned deerskin, as well as explore techniques on how to preserve skins of animals by making rawhide. This workshop will begin collaboratively to transform a deer skin into a piece of rawhide leather. Students will then explore working with rawhide to create containers or tools sheaths. Students in this workshop will learn to sew with brain-tanned buckskin, draft a pattern on the material, and the traditional tools used for sewing buckskin to create a small amulet pouch and a larger side pouch. Throughout the week the class will discuss how leather has traditionally been manufactured on a small and global scale, as well as the societal and environmental impacts the leather industry has on the world today.
