Hide Club: SPECIALIZED

Smoke-tanning

Welcome to Hide Club.

Hide Club is a comprehensive, live, online program. We translate hide tanning to at-home practice - in your kitchen, backyard, or wherever you set up your screen + scraping beam. You tan three full-size hides into leather, buckskin, and fur rugs. You join a live group for guidance in-the-now + get access to an online resource space. You learn along with a crew of other amazing tanner-learners who’ve got your back.

Our Hide Club seasonality looks like this:

February-March is Hide Club: FOUNDATIONS. Building the roadmap to the craft.

May-June + September-October is Hide Club: SPECIALIZED. Honing in on the terrain deeper.

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Next live cohort: Hide Club: SPECIALIZED ~ Smoke-tanning is May-June, 2025.

DOORS OPEN NOW. New members welcome!

WHAT IT’S LIKE INSIDE HIDE CLUB:

  • A weekly live + recorded call on Zoom

  • Real time instruction as we tan 3 full-sized hides:

    (1) OIL-TANNED FISH LEATHER
    (2) BUCKSKIN CLOTH
    (3) SHEEPSKIN FUR RUG

  • An online resource space for recordings + instruction

  • A WhatsApp group chat to tackle troubleshooting in real time

  • You make your own classic tanned hides - learning on 3 different skins + honing your skills

  • Join a group of students and teachers who all learn from each other.

  • Your questions, risks, experiments - and yes, mistakes - will turn into your confidence.

Hide Club: SPECIALIZED Smoke-TANNING

MAY - JUNE, 2025
Weekly, Thursdays @ 4:30-6:30pm PT
Biweekly, Saturdays @ 10:30am-12:30pm PT

ABOUT OUR METHOD:

Smoke-tanning is one of three hide tanning categories, or methods. We name it after the ingredients that go into the hide. You’ll also hear this method called brain-tanning for the same reason. Smoke x fat. Together, they react on a molecular level within an animal hide + irrevocably change it forever. Once a hide is tanned, it is textile. It will never be skin again.

Smoke-tanning is the oldest + most earthen of all hide tannings methods. But seriously: not just of hide-craft but of any textile-craft in the world! Smoke-tanning hides predates weaving plant-based cloth by 100,000 years. Humans have been doing this for a long, long time. Every generation of humanity has smoked-tanned hides since we literally became human.

That kind of ancestral presence in a craft is powerful.

It means that when we work hides, we move our bodies the way they want to move. It means we enter a flow state, unique our personal rhythm with no rush, no hustle, just somatic attunement to the hide we work + a building of strength and skill in ourselves. It is embodied healing - without the fluff, without the trendiness. Hide tanning is hard work, and rich reward. Somatically, psycho-emotionally, and communally: hide tanning + especially smoke-tanning brings us home.

make hide tanning your own

How to Join:

  1. Choose your sliding-scale tuition

  2. Get the materials kit from us or bring your own

Softening a Smoke-tanned Sheepskin

How to Make the Most of the Club:

  1. Get our recommended tools. See here.

  2. Order a materials kit from us - or BYO hides

  3. Catch calls live or watch recordings soon after

  4. Carve out time in your calendar + make it your hide time

Returning Hide Club members:

Use code BACKAGAIN at checkout for 15% off your chosen tuition tier. Welcome back yall!

Note: you’ll need to source or purchase a fish fillet to learn how to skin it + make fishskin leather in this cohort

What we’re tanning

SHEEPSKIN RUG

FISHSKIN LEATHER

BUCKSKIN CLOTH

What you get in HIDE CLUB

  • You’ll know the natural chemistry underlying leather creation

  • You’ll learn the difference between tanning fur-on versus grain-on hides

  • You’ll be able to re-create the process at home long after the program ends

  • You’ll be a more knowledgeable, perceptive, and skillful tanner

It’s not just the skill of hide tanning you grow with each hide you tan

It’s hands-on capableness. it’s connection to ancestry.

It’s community, it’s resilience.

What Hide Club Alumni say…

  • "I love it all so much! Being able to share interests and insights with folks, being able to return to videos and information later."

  • "The variety of information and additional depth of understanding it provides has been great - Science! Diff methods!"

  • "I appreciate the knowledge of the instructors and the good way the material is taught."

  • "Really love the instruction sessions, course materials, and community."

  • "Love that everyone brings their own perspective and practices. All very knowledgeable with excellent presentations."

more words from hide club

  • “All I want to do is gush about how awesome it was and how much more there is to learn. I miss the gathering and all the check-ins."

    Renée-Lynn D

  • “Thank you again for creating and curating such a magical space and community.”

    Katelyn K

  • "For so many of us that are hide tanners, the feeling of magic, wonder, and restoration is palpable- this coursework is the inner knowing, made tangible."

    Emily M

  • “I have left the program feeling held, supported, witnessed, and celebrated by this particularly impressive and deeply kind and supportive community. I feel well resourced + more equipped emotionally, practically, and spiritually to engage in right relationship to this craft ."

    Marissa S

  • "Such a depth of knowledge from the teachers/mentors and peers alike. There are so many nuances captured in each of our hide practices."

    Jackson R

  • "The flow of the program was seamless - each session intentional and rich, with enough repetition and hands-on learning to gain confidence and learn quickly. Well done, really, what a successful transition to offering something so tactile online. I’m in awe!"

    Laura H

your sliding scale tuition

Flexibility for accessibility  

Tier 1

$299 CAD
$208 USD

This price is for you if, for ex…

  • you struggle to meet necessities, such as paying rent

  • it would take 3+ months to save up for the next tier

  • Hide Club would be your main program investment for the year

Tier 2

$349 CAD
$243 USD

This price is for you if, for ex…

  • you can meet your basic necessities, but are not yet building savings

  • it would take 3+ months to save up for the next tier

  • Hide Club is one of a small number of other programs you can invest in this year

Tier 3

$399 CAD
$278 USD

This price is for you if, for ex…

  • you can meet your basic necessities and are building savings

  • you do not need to save up to join

  • Hide Club is one of several other programs you are investing in

 FAQs

  • Thursday sessions are 90-120 minutes. Saturday sessions are 120 minutes.

  • Yes. Every call is recorded and available in our online space for one year after Hide Club ends.

    • 2 full-sized, salted hides

    • framing string + needle

    • Calx (lime powder)

    • leather oil

    • protective gloves

    • citric acid

    • salt

    • pH indicator liquid

    • the lumber for building your simple at-home equipment (we’ll give you a short list + directions on how to source it). two litres/quarts of white vinegar

    • a large (10-gal) soaking bin (ie Rubbermaid)

    • a standard 5- or 6-gal bucket

    • our recommended tools

    • 10-15 lbs of tannins - either harvest these yourself from trees with our instructions before September, or purchase them from our recommended suppliers or your own source. Details in the online space after registration.

    • you CAN bring your own hides, you are not required to purchase a materials kit

  • The main instructor is Mara Cur.

    Our tech artisan is Bonnie Klohn.

    We host guest speakers every year and we will have two speakers this cohort!

  • Yes, you can provide your own goat or sheep hides or a small deer. Hides for this cohort need to be around 3 ft in length and no more.