- This event has passed.
Fur-On Rabbit Hide Tanning w/ Nico Piedrahita & Callan Burton-Shore
April 27, 2024 @ 9:00 am – April 28, 2024 @ 5:00 pm
About the Workshop: Fur On Rabbit Hide Tanning
Spend a weekend learning techniques for small, fur-on animal hide tanning! Using the ‘brain-tanning’ method, we will use eggs and smoke to turn rabbit hides into beautiful, soft, and usable material! You will leave with your own self-tanned hide and enough information to continue on your hide tanning journey! Not only is hide tanning a useful skill for today, but a practice that is embedded in all of our human ancestry. Tanning is a deeply satisfying and fulfilling skill that reduces dependence on industrial products, shares respect and gratitude for the web of life around us, and connects us to our roots.
In this class students will learn:
- How to prepare hides for tanning
- How to soften fur-on hides
- How to smoke hides for preservation
- Tips for dealing with specific animals’ furs
- Theory and science of hide tanning
Throughout our time together you will also have the opportunity to pick the brains of two experienced hide tanners and ask any questions you may have. Everyone is welcome in this class, whether you’ve tanned hides before or not; you will certainly learn something new!
Please note that hide tanning is not an exact science and many variables come into play, so it is possible that our day could end earlier or a bit later on Saturday and Sunday; plan accordingly.
This class will be held in a covered outdoor location on Saturday and Sunday, April 27 – 28, 2024, from 9 am – 5 pm (both days) near Asheville, NC.
This class is suitable both for experienced weavers and beginners alike! The minimum age is 16.
About the Instructors: Nico Piedrahita & Callan Burton-Shore
Nico Piedrahita: Since he was a kid, Nico’s always wanted to live in the woods. For the last 10 years, he’s been fulfilling that dream, living off-grid in the mountains around Asheville, and studying the skills and knowledge it takes to meet his own needs from the land. That “simple” act, of meeting a need for himself, ties him closer to the land and all the beings around him. His main areas of focus have been hide tanning and woodworking, and he now runs a business tanning hides, carving spoons and bowls, and teaching these skills to the local community.
Callan Burton-Shore: Callan Burton-Shore (she/her) is an ancestral skills teacher and traditional craftsperson. She teaches friction fire, hide tanning, spoon carving, and more, to children and adults across Western North Carolina and the Southeast. Callan believes that ancestral skills and practices allow us to connect more deeply with the land, each other, and ourselves, and thus has made them a part of her daily life. When she’s not teaching or creating, she is passionate about animal processing, tree climbing, and dancing! In addition to teaching her own classes, she teaches at the Green WoodWrights Festival, Wild Abundance, Forest Floor Wilderness Programs, The Little Wild School, The Living Earth School, various earthskills gatherings, and beyond.
Equitable Pricing Model $275 – $145*
* Please click here to learn about your pricing options before you register for your first Perennial Workshop. The pricing options are the same for all events, so you only need to do it once!
In order to make our workshops more accessible, we offer two price options for each class, with an additional Equity Discount for qualifying individuals. Please consider these options and select your price at checkout.
- Sponsor Price $275: For those who have enough to share, thank you for being a Sponsor. This is an opportunity to contribute towards the cost of the class for someone else.
- Standard Price $210: The Standard reflects one person’s share of what it costs to produce the class and cover basic expenses.
- Equity Discount $145: We offer an additional Equity Discount for those from the following communities who support reparations and/or an equitable redistribution of wealth and would not have access to this workshop without this discount:
- Indigenous or Native American, Black, Latino/a/x
- Other peoples of the global majority, or racialized communities
- Ethnicities underrepresented in the Southeastern earthskills community
Thank you for helping transform the world into a culture of abundance, resilience, and opportunity for all.
Which Price Option is Right for You?*
*Please check your pricing options before you register for your first Perennial Workshop. The pricing options are the same for all events, so you only need to do it once!
