Myself and my partner run a small traditional tannery on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park, one of Scotland’s last Tanneries to produce traditional rawhide and bark tanned leather. We transform animal hides into functional leather items that will last a lifetime and beyond - hides which, as a by-product of the meat industry, would usually be left to go to waste and end up in landfill. It is our deepest devotion to tend to these hides with reverence and respect.
You can sometimes find our sheepskins and smaller tanned furs (such as foxes and rabbits) in the shop here, but if you’d like to see our full range of items then please visit www.woodlandtannery.com, or feel free to send an email to woodlandtannery@gmail.com with any enquiries.
Some of my paintings also explore the use of animal hide as canvas, an echo of our ancestral ways of creating and existing within the tapestry of the Living World. I am continuously experimenting with the use of different tree barks to dye the deer hide, and with plant dyes to use as botanical pigment on cotton and linen canvas. This technique beautifully highlights some of the delicate folds and creases in the hide through a subtle variation of colour, which I then paint over and into using the wild pigments - Allowing the markings in the dyed canvas to guide the paintbrush, following the subtle patterns which always seem to emulate those found in the natural world. The unpredictability of the dyeing stage of the process means that I have little to no control over the outcome, with nature being the guiding force in the creation of this stage of the work.
The gathering and foraging for plants and tree bark to dye is a crucial part of the practice, using nature as inspiration, as material and as process. In the same way, the processing of the animal and the preparation of the rawhide becomes an integral part of the creative journey…working closely and intimately with themes of death and rebirth, gratitude, reverence and reciprocity to create work that is rooted in the cyclical nature of our existence here on Earth.
