Produced by a human - NO A.I.
Each hide & skin, prepared purely by hand. No mass production, not focusing on speed, but keeping traditional methods & techniques alive.
A small Traditional Tannery here in New Zealand. Buckskin, bark tanned possum skin cloaks & Workshops.
Traditional Tanning NZ Community on Facebook. Soon to come, pdf book, workshops & being able to produce more skins/hides
buckskin & possum cloaks
A brushtail possum skin cloak, tanned with Mimosa tannin powder & softened with tallow. Each individual skin is then oiled with tallow, heated up near a fire, softened & sanded by hand. Brushtail possum fur is some of the highest quality & softest fur in the world. As in the fur fibers per sq inch is extremely high, but each fiber is hollow making it extremely soft.
Bark tanned skins are permanently transformed into a bio-logically stable leather. This strong bind that occurs between the tannin particles & collagen fiber structure, alongside the oil imbued into the skin make it water proof. It smells similar to wood, but does not have the usual stinky possum smell or greasy skin. Nice, dry & smooth. After it dries when it gets wet, it will either go back to being soft, or will go slightly stiff. Returning back to its soft state after some use.
I am one of the only people in New Zealand who does & plans on continuing to produce these exceptionally rare cloaks/garments/blankets. Item details are below. Most of the skins are 1st grades, some are 2nd grade. Few of them have small holes or patches of re-growth. Nonetheless, this does not affect the quality of the cloak, only the aesthetic on the “flesh side”.
Note: This is un-lined, keeping it in the style of a traditional brushtail possum skin cloak like Australian Aboriginal Natives would do. If you want a custom one made, with or without lining, please contact me & I will put you on a list. Don’t hesitate to contact me to organize & get an estimation of pricing as the list is already 4-6 people long. Will take me about 1-3 weeks to process each one. Thanks.
Dimensions: 107cm x 141cm
Weight: 1.63 KG
Tan: Mimosa Tannin Powder (Black Wattle/Acacia Mearnsii)
Average Skin Size: Medium, making this cloak $52 per skin.
Very large smoke tanned hide prepared out of Farmed Red Deer Hide, 16.2 Sq FT. Frame softened so that it is nice & flat, passes the needle test with ease all over the hide. There is a small thumb sized dense area that’s very hard at the spine on the neck, rest of the hide is very soft. This hide in particular is thinner as it’s a female.
Softened with a combination of plant extract lecithin & olive oil, then smoked with punk wood from New Zealand. These hides have been frame softened so that the hide comes out nice & flat. All my hides pass the needle test, meaning that they are excellent quality for bead working, let alone for garments.
$664 AUD
A brushtail possum skin cloak, tanned with Mimosa tannin powder & softened with tallow. Each individual skin is then oiled with tallow, heated up near a fire, softened & sanded by hand. Brushtail possum fur is some of the highest quality & softest fur in the world. As in the fur fibers per sq inch is extremely high, but each fiber is hollow making it extremely soft.
Bark tanned skins are permanently transformed into a bio-logically stable leather. This strong bind that occurs between the tannin particles & collagen fiber structure, alongside the oil imbued into the skin make it water proof. It smells similar to wood, but does not have the usual stinky possum smell or greasy skin. Nice, dry & smooth. After it dries when it gets wet, it will either go back to being soft, or will go slightly stiff. Returning back to its soft state after some use.
These have been lined with pure cotton fabric that have an awesome red/black tartan pattern.
Note: For custom orders, please contact me via the contact page. I have a small list of custom ordered cloaks I am working to fulfill. Cloaks take 1-4 weeks to process depending on size. Thanks. :)
Dimensions: 95cm x 45cm
Weight: 0.5 KG
Tan: Mimosa Tannin Powder (Black Wattle/Acacia Mearnsii)
Average Skin Size: Small/XSmall - $48 Per Skin