Fish Leather: tanning and sewing with traditional methods

By Lotta Rahme, 76 pages, many photos and illustrations.

This is a well-researched, thorough, and informative book about making your own leather from fish skin. It includes traditional, organic methods and is the go-to book for anyone interested in tanning fish. The back cover summarizes it best: “The use of fish skin is an ancient tradition in societies found along rivers, streams and coasts all over the world. In areas where there were few other species, fish skin was regarded as a useful material. Today the interest in making use of fish skin, an undeveloped by-product, is on the rise and clothing as well as other products is made out of the skins. In order to use the skins they need to be tanned first, i.e. be prepared in a way that they keep the strength, smoothness, and flexibility present in their raw condition. This book contains recipes on how you can tan your fish skin with ingredients from everyday life such as olive oil, rapeseed oil, soap and bark. The book does also include sewing instructions and patterns. The author, Lotta Rahme, has a tannery and a studio in the medieval town of Sigtuna in Sweden. For over 30 years she has been studying and working with the art of tanning. She has lectured and led many courses throughout the Nordic region. Much of her knowledge has been acquired directly from Inuit, Native American, Sami and Ainu women”.