The Pembina Fibreshed and Manitoba Craft Council is pleased to announce a fish skin tanning workshop with Christel Lanthier of Ferme Fiola Farm

SUNDAY, MARCH 10
2-4PM

and

SUNDAY, MARCH 17
2-4PM

Location: Manitoba Craft Council C2 Gallery (329 Cumberland Ave #1, Winnipeg, MB)

Join Christel in this two-part workshop, where participants will learn to turn raw fish skins into a working textile using black tea and pickerel fish skins from Lake Winnipeg. There will be some homework sent home as the fish skins need to be monitored between the 2 workshops. In the second part, participants will learn how to soften their leather and sew it into a small card holder that can be brought home. Christel will speak about some historical context of fish skin tanning, have shared discussion on how to tan and be in good relationship with land and environment as well as using leather as a regenerative textile.

NOTE: Participants are asked to bring one glass jar (pasta sauce size) and have one extra on hand at home.

Accessibility: This workshop is hands on and requires repetitive hand and wrist work throughout making of the leather. Folks with certain conditions such as carpal tunnel, arthritis, or other conditions in the hands and wrists may find this workshop very challenging. If you have any questions please contact Christel prior to registering.

Bio

Christel Lanthier (she/her/elle) is a Franco-Manitoban, Métis, and mixed, multidisciplinary textile artist, hide tanner, photographer, mother, shepherdess, and caretaker of land on Treaty One Territory. Her work focuses on the soil to soil cycle. Christel is passionate about turning sunlight and grass into textile through traditional, holistic and regenerative approaches of land management on her 1st generation family farm. Her hide tanning journey began a little over 10 years ago. Today, tanning her own sheepskin is motivated by her Métis roots out of respect utilizing all gifts offered and the use of an animal from nose-to-tail. This practice brought her to tanning other hides such as local deer and fish skins. Through her work with fish skin leather, Christel explores and honors its historical context, and is passionate in sharing natural tanning methods with others in exploration of reviving and preserving compostable methods of usable craft and textile mediums.