The brains aren't what actually tan the hides into leather smoke does that. The name is a little misleading though, Quinn said. Though most tanneries today use chemicals to make leather, Quinn employs the traditional method of soaking hides in animal brains. But a few times a year, she teaches workshops all about hide tanning.īrain tanning hides is a entirely natural process. She is a craftsperson who also makes and sells jewelry from ethically sourced bones, leather bags and buckskin bikinis at local events and online. "If I’m going to choose to eat an animal, I’m going to use as much of the animal as I can," Quinn said. It was when she decided to start eating meat again that she thought about learning to tan hides. Instead of going to college, she spent her time protecting old-growth forests and considering her life's impact on the planet. Quinn learned the skill years ago when she was learning to live off-the-grid.
What goes into learning a centuries-old practice?īrain tanning requires just a few ingredients: a deer hide, water and, you guessed it, animal brains. It's a practice that indigenous peoples have been using for centuries, a technique that Quinn now teaches to anyone interested in learning. "It feels like absolute magic because you had this really gross thing and you turn it into something beautiful," Quinn said.
Hides meaning in ranch skin#
She looped the hide around a cable and used her body weight to drag it down over and over again to soften it.īy the end of the weekend, the group will have transformed two hairy, tough pieces of deer skin into buttery-soft and supple materials stronger than most fabrics. Quinn taught one participant, Eleanor Reagan, how to "cable" a hide. Holding the brain-soaked deer skin, which looked like a wet blanket, students pulled on the hides with gloved hands to dry them out. The six adults and two kids all took turns working the hides, stretching them both by hand. It was the second day of her three-day workshop on the subject. On a recent gloomy Saturday, Quinn –– an artist and teacher located in Athens County –– led a small group of students through the process. It's quiet and unassuming, and thankfully she has known the neighbors for years, so it's the perfect place to teach folks the age-old tradition of brain tanning deer hides. THE PLAINS –– At the end of the cul-de-sac sits Talcon Quinn's canary yellow ranch, a home that her grandparents built decades ago.
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