Adult Naturalist Series: Leather Crafting

Join us for a weekend workshop where we will take the whole hide of a deer and turn it into buckskin. Tanned buckskin is a type of leather that is soft, pliable, and water resistant which can be turned into so many other useful tools. Our ancestors learned to use this material to make footwear, clothing, and containers.

In this class you will learn to:

- How to properly store deer skins for future use

- What tools are necessary and their use

- The process for cleaning a hide

MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR

James Michael Ciesluk

James Michael Ciesluk is an educator and naturalist who is passionate about teaching others the art of tracking in nature and ancestral living skills. James Michael spends his time inspiring and teaching students to build stone tools, make fire by friction, track animals, and build shelters of all kinds.

Previously he led adult intensive classes in survival, tracking, and youth programs at Earth Native Wilderness School outside of Austin, TX. He studied wilderness skills and nature education full time at Alderleaf Wilderness College in Western Washington where he completed the school’s Wilderness Certification Program and the Alderleaf Instructor Apprenticeship. He attended Wilderness Awareness School’s Immersion program in Duvall, Washington where he further honed his naturalist, nature mentoring, wilderness skills, and volunteered as a team lead for Conservation Northwest Citizen Science Project. James Michael is certified Level III in Wildlife Track and Sign Identification and Level II in Wildlife Trailing through CyberTracker Conservation International, an international standard for evaluating the field skills of Wildlife Trackers, and is a wilderness first responder certified.

When he’s not sauntering around in the woods with students, James Michael enjoys following animal trails through the woods and honing his bushcrafting skills.