We taught 2 workshops where scouts made medicine bags from deer hides & cow leather. The teachers Stan & Eric & Bob did a wonderful job in sharing their knowledge. They patiently guided & encourage the participants as they designed & assembled their bags.
A total of 25 bags were crafted - required skills included stamping, punching, sewing & designing.
Here are some pictures of the bags;
We also taught a class highlighting the amazing variety & beauty of the animals placed on this earth. People viewed & handled the pelts & skins of about 120 different animals. New additions to the collection this year include camel, mole pelts & New Zealand possum fur.
They also handled over 50 items made from leather / fur. Examples include camel leather wallet, badger hair shaving brush, violin bow made of horse hair, elk leather jacket, Australian cane toad coin purse & New Zealand possum fur gloves.
Once again, the Wild Sheep Foundation loaned several big horn sheep horns for all to heft & feel. EVERYONE was impressed with these horns!
This year, a new partner contributed to the education of the group - the oldest hat company in the United States - The Bollman Hat Company, of Adamstown, PA. The Bollman Hat Company provided samples of Grease wool + Carbonized wool + a "carded body" - formed sheep wool prior to felting + a hardened felted body + a dyed felt body - ready to be formed into a final hat.
This example of the various steps to transform the freshly sheared sheep wool into a wool felt hat captured the attention of many.
Another new partner, The Tin Shed, in New Zealand, also donated possum fur & wool to show the progression from the animal fur into a finished item - in this case, wool gloves.
Participants played a matching game with leather / wool gloves from 16 types of animals;
buffalo, bison wool, cow, elk, deer, goat, hair sheep, horse, kangaroo, moose, New Zealand possum wool, peccary, pig, rabbit, sheep wool & sheepskin - they picked out a pair of gloves and had to find the matching hide.
People who completed a word find / crossword puzzle about animal trivia or leather facts earned a para-cord bracelet from Cabela's. We appreciate their partnership over the past 5 years.
After a review of the unique pelts / skins we played another game - people chose several of 50 toy animals and searched out the hide for that animal. Once the correct match was made, the toy was left on the pelt & as others came by to view the collection, they were able to identify the pelts.
Here is feedback from several participants; "Top 3 favorite parts of the class"
- Making the deer hide bag / sewing the bag myself / the stamp on the bottom of my bag
- The huge variety of animal pelts / learning interesting facts about animals / the crossword puzzle since it reminded me of what we learned
- Seeing the progress from raw sheep wool to a completed wool hat blank, ready to be pressed into a finished hat.
- Tons of different animal hides / Feeling the different hides / big horn sheep horns
- Played the game with the gloves / feeling the different gloves / lots of animal pelts
- Variety of animals / made a deer skin bag / got a para-cord bracelet
- New types of pelts since last year / the toy animal matching game / example of possum fur to knitted wool to be made into a glove/sweater
- Matching the toy animals with the pelts / examples of sheep wool from raw to finished piece to be made into a hat / holding the different pelts
At the end of the night we enjoyed a delicious dinner including wild rice, pork, elk meatballs, rolls & a mix of potatoes / carrots / yams.
