carolina hides

Honoring life. Redirecting waste. Reducing environmental impact. Creating heirlooms.

A small-scale regional animal and fiber systems project to keep North Carolina goat and sheep parts & hides local, humane, and environmentally responsible at all stages of production. This project centers the animals, humans, and environment involved in fiber production, and builds relationships with local family-run sites to ensure humane and environmentally-friendly practices.

AVAILABLE

SPOTTY SHEEP HAIR/WOOL CROSS

TAN GOAT

LARGE RED/BROWN GOAT

WHITE WOOL SHEEP

Brown Horn Goat (1)

Brown Horn Goat (2)

Ram Skull (1)

Ram Skull (2)

Black Horned Goat (1)

Black Horned Goat (2)

Thick Horn Goat (2)

Thick Horn Goat (1)

SOLD

Redirecting waste & Reducing environmental impact: The sheep and goats that grew these skulls & hides were all raised on farms in the Southeast and harvested for meat at a local processing facility in North Carolina. The processing facility chosen is a small family-run business and is committed to humane harvesting practices. After harvest, many of these hides go to waste or are sent very long distances out of state or overseas to be further processed by unregulated tanneries that use toxic chemicals. This project re-directs hides from going to waste or moving long distances, and in so doing, honors the animal by giving it a new life. By keeping fiber production local at all stages of production, the use of petroleum to move the hides long distances to be processed and sold is eliminated. The project also toured and inquired the local fur dressing facility utilized to ensure environmentally responsible practices.

The process: All sheep and goat hides are hand-picked at the processing facility, and then shaped and fleshed by me on-site. The hides emerge as full animal capes- with heads, arms and tails- and are cut down to size. The extra meat and fat are fleshed out with a knife. From there, I salt and hang the hides for a couple of days for them to cure. They are then driven to a local family-run fur dressing facility to finish the tanning process. When I pick them up I do one more round of shaping, and then sell them locally. The animals heads are taken home to process through a few days of fleshing, simmering, de-greasing, and whitening to create a finished skull.