carolina skulls

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

SOLD, Shiny Hair Sheep (Copy)

WHITE WOOL SHEEP (Copy)

SPOTTY HAIR WOOL SHEEP CROSS (Copy)

SOLD, Black Wooly (Copy)

SOLD, STRIPED GOAT (Copy)

SOLD, Tan Hair Wool Sheep Cross (Copy)

BROWN LARGE GOAT (Copy)

TAN GOAT (Copy)

SOLD, Sleek Black Hair Sheep (Copy)

SOLD, Plush Softy Sheep (Copy)

SOLD, Soft Spotty Sheep (Copy)

SOLD, Long-haired Chocolate Sheep (Copy)

SOLD, Light Brown Goat (Copy)

SOLD, Spotty Goat (Copy)

SOLD, Light Grey Fluffy Sheep (Copy)

SOLD, Angora Goat Weirdo (Copy)

SOLD, Fluffy Toffee Sheep (Copy)

SOLD, Speckled Long-haired Goat (Copy)

Red-toned Goat (Copy)

SOLD, Grey-tipped Fluffy Sheep (Copy)

SOLD, Large Red Brown Goat (Copy)

SOLD, Grey-tinged Soft Sheep (Copy)

SOLD, Large Brown Wooly (Copy)

SOLD, Speckled Softy (Copy)

SOLD, Spotted Softy (Copy)

SOLD, Plush Chocolate (Copy)

SOLD, Furry patchy (Copy)

SOLD, Plush wooly (Copy)

SOLD, Dynamic Wooly (Copy)

SOLD, Short softy (Copy)

carolina hides

A small-scale regional fiber systems project to keep North Carolina goat and sheep 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.

Honoring life & Redirecting waste: The sheep and goats that grew these hides were all raised on farms in North Carolina and harvested for meat at a local processing facility. 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 another part of the animal by giving it a new life.

Reducing environmental impact: The sheep and goats that provided these hides were all raised, harvested, and processed in North Carolina. 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. They 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.