Fish skin, a sustainable material used from ancient times to today's fashion

Forfattere

  • Lotta Rahme The Craft Laboratory, University of Gothenburg

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.4183

Emneord (Nøkkelord):

Preserve, Research, Education, Sustainability, Fish leather

Sammendrag

The use of fish skin is an ancient tradition in Arctic societies along rivers, streams and coasts all over the world. Fish skins were regarded as a useful material for parkas, boots, mittens and hats. Today the interest in making use of fish skin, an undeveloped by-product, is on the rise. By using different tanning techniques from cultures around the globe, fish skin has shown great promise as a material for clothing, as well as other products. There is also a desire to be able to tan these skins with environmentally friendly techniques. Today most animal skins are tanned using chromium and other cheap toxic substances, raising question around health and environmental safety. The knowledge of how to use these traditional tanning methods has been preserved by woman from cultures along the Arctic Circle stretching from the Nordic countries to Canada and Japan. In order to keep this knowledge alive for future generations, Sweden has re-introduced the possibility to receive a Master tanner´s title, increasing the incentive and status for those studying these important subjects. This is a report and narrative review of the field, and insights I have acquired over 3 decades; from student to Master Tanner.

Forfatterbiografi

Lotta Rahme, The Craft Laboratory, University of Gothenburg

Guest Cratsman, Tanner.

 

Referanser

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Palomino, E. (2020). SDG 14 Life Below Water: Introducing fish skin as a sustainable raw material for fashion. In I. B. Franco, T. Chatterji, E. Derbyshire, & J. Tracey (Eds.), Actioning the Global Goals for Local Impact (pp. 229–246). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9927-6_15 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9927-6_15

Palomino, E., & Rahme, L. (2020). Indigenous arctic fish skin – A study of different traditional skin processing technology. Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists Journal from Northampton University, accepted for publication.

Rahme.L (2011). Tanning with traditional tools and techniques. Leather tanneries: the archaeological evidence, 39-48.

Rahme, L., & Hartman, D. (2021). Fish leather: Tanning and sewing with traditional methods. Lottas Garfveri. (Original work published 2012)

Rahme, L., & Hartman, D. (2014). Traditional tanning: Leather and furskin. Lottas Garfveri.

Ts’ai, L. S., & Wilson, E. O. (1929). Smoke tannage: The effect of wood smoke on the combining capacity of hide substance for chromic trioxide, vegetable tanning, and sodium hydroxide. Journal of the American Leather Chemists’ Association, 21–36.

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Nedlastinger

Publisert

2021-05-10

Hvordan referere

Rahme, L. (2021). Fish skin, a sustainable material used from ancient times to today’s fashion. FormAkademisk, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.4183

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