Traditional Skinning and Tanning with Scott Rewild
Scott first became interested in organic traditional tanning through the primitive skills movement in Sweden. He attended a DIY wilderness gathering skill share about 8 years ago. Staying on in Sweden and living with a small clan in the forest. He then went north to study at a traditional handicraft folk school and completed the intense, full-time, 7 month Organic Traditional Tanning course.
After this, Scott moved back to the forest and linked in with a local, low impact community. He set up a small tannery to work from and run courses. His first project was to go back north to connect with the Samis and their wild reindeer. He got 50 reindeer skins, drove straight back (22 hours) and worked on them with help from a couple of friends. After nearly 4 days of little or no sleep, it was decided to try and do things on a smaller scale.
After three years in Sweden with some back country experience in Norway, Scott came back to the UK and moved to Wales. He soon realised not much traditional organic tanning was going on. There was a tannery in every town and village 150 years ago. Now there are around 5 in the U.K. Scott was neither a hunter or farmer and needed to access skins in a ethical way. Not wanting to promote hunting or damaging farming practices, he started to connect with local hunters and collect their waste for free. Some skins he gets from certain small abattoirs and only works with heritage breeds where possible. Roadkill is also a unfortunate consequence of the modern world.
Scott has lots of experience teaching people skinning and tanning. He works with various types of animals using different methods and practices from around the world. He is one of few people in Europe who teaches the ancient art of fish skin tanning.
The Rewild Project
Scott co-founded the CIC social enterprise The Rewild Project, in the Forest Of Dean. This project aims to connect people to nature through traditional handicrafts and through creating community edible gardens.
Facebook : The Rewild project and Tannery Organic Traditional