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1 INTRODUCTION
FishSkinLab is a textile-based programme. The
project was delivered in partnership with IAIA and it
was designed to build and promote community
knowledge around fish skin material culture. This
paper describes the findings of the second phase of
the project from October 2017 until August 2018.
The FishSkinLab programme delivered a workshop
at Jiejinkou Hezhen Village ethnic museum,
Heilongjiang province, in Northeast China, and
brought together a community of craftspeople from
the Hezhe ethnic minority and fashion higher
education students. FishSkinLab aims to develop
new fashion practices, taking students out of the
classroom and into nature, contributing to the
learning experience about fashion sustainability. The
project aims to improve the awareness and
protection of traditional Chinese culture from the
point of view of cultural integration. Students learn
traditional handcraft heritage to integrate it in their
fashion practice.
Participatory design and co-design structures are
key to changing fashion systems and to foster lasting
relationships between makers and final product
(Fletcher 2008).
The main project objectives are:
− Map existing traditional knowledge of fish skin
craft from Hezhe ethnic minority.
− Build an interdisciplinary collaborative network
which intersects Hezhe craftspeople and higher
education (HE) students.
− Preserve and disseminate Hezhe cultural heritage
connected with fish skin.
− Strength Hezhe participation in international
endeavours via inclusion of master craftspeople
in network collaborative events.
− Help HE students to engage in sustainability by
developing fish skin samples as an
environmentally responsible alternative material
for fashion.
− Bring together sustainable methods from fashion
design and traditional crafts to foster international
knowledge exchange.
− Identify tools about best practice on fish skin
craft and test the ideas at fashion higher education
institutions in the UK and internationally.
The FishSkinLab team set up a workshop with
different activities such fish skin tanning, fish skin
painting, fish bone painting and ethnographic
fieldwork of historical fish leather artefacts at
national museums. A total of 20 students from
different Chinese provinces benefited from the
workshop, 2 Hezhe ethnic minority craftspeople
delivered the workshop, 20 members of the Hezhe
ethnic minority engaged in a public exhibition of the
results and over 500 Chinese students participated
on the online crit.
The paper describes the FishSkinLab methods of
sustainable material engagement and the full
Preservation of the Hezhe people’s fish skin tradition through fashion
education
E. Palomino & J. Boon
UAL, Central saint Martins; University of the Arts, London
J. Boon
Slade School of Fine Art, London
ABSTRACT: People have worn clothes made from fish skin since early times, with earliest traces being
found in Northeast China belonging to the Hezhe ethnic minority group. There is evidence of fish skin leather
production in Scandinavia, the USA (Alaska), Japan (Hokkaido), Northeast China, and Russia (Siberia).
Although the craft has almost disappeared, in 2006 the skill of processing fish skin was one of the first listed
as Intangible Cultural Heritage of China. This paper describes the FishSkinLab workshop delivered in
Tongjiang, China, where experienced Hezhe craftspeople have pass down the endangered fish skin craft to the
next generation of Chinese students as part of a sustainable fashion higher education programme to learn best
practices for social change and sustainability. The students mapped their creative journey, explored the rich
cultural background of the Hezhe communities, and created a collection of fish skin textile samples with the
help and guidance of Hezhe fish skin masters.
immersive experience through a teaching-in-the field
approach. The paper analyses its findings in order to
recommend transferable skills for educational
models. The paper concludes to recommend the
importance of Hezhe ethnic community visibility
within China to facilitate intangible cultural heritage
knowledge exchange.
2 BACKGROUND
An overview of the FishSkinLab network project
partners as well as the historical context of fish skin
craft and notion of intangible cultural heritage.
2.1 UAL
UAL is Europe’s largest specialist arts and Design
University, bringing together six arts, design,
fashion and communication Colleges with more than
3,000 academic, research and technical staff and
about 19,000 students from more than 100 countries.
UAL is actively engaged in research and
innovation as well as artistic, cultural and education
projects. UAL has particularly strong links with
industry and creative practice and has been a pioneer
in the development of practice-based and practice-
led research in creative fields.
The author of this paper is the Fashion Print
Pathway leader at Central Saint Martins, UAL and
researcher based at the TFRC Textile Future
Research Centre UAL. The author draws on her
previous industry experience back in 2004,
designing for John Galliano and Christian Dior fish
leather garments and accessories made out of
salmon, perch and cod skins sourced at Atlantic
leather, the world’s biggest fish skin tannery based
in Iceland, situating the use of fish leather within the
context of the luxury Industry. The author has
experience running network projects linked with fish
skin (e.g. EU Horizon 2020-MSCA-RISE Marie
Sklodowska Curie: Fish Skin a Sustainable Raw
Material), and has been funded by EU COSME
WORTH partnership project to develop a Fish skin
leather accessories collection with the aim to
increase the use and sustainability of fish leather in
the luxury fashion industry.
The results in this paper do not attempt to describe
the contemporary use of fish skin as an innovative
sustainable material for fashion and accessories but
they aim to describe the transmission of the fish skin
craft to fashion higher education students instead.
The research is investigated through the
researcher’s current practice as educator at Central
Saint Martins, supporting fashion design students to
engage in sustainability.
2.2 International Art Institutes Association (IAIA)
The International Art Institutes Association (IAIA),
in Beijing, China, is a company specialized in
providing Chinese Fashion students educational
consulting and application mentoring. IAIA is the
only official partner of UAL Beijing representative
Office. IAIA works to cultivate future Chinese
designers with both global vision and better
understanding of Chinese culture, they cooperate
with world-class artists to provide more advanced
design concepts while keeping a strong interest in
their rich Chinese cultural traditions.
Under the guidance of the author, Ms. Yuhan
Chen, the director of IAIA Fashion Studio recruited
the Chinese students and secured the craftspeople,
location and logistics of the trip.
2.3 Historical context: the Hezhe ethnic minority
The Hezhe are one of China’s smallest ethnic
minorities (Hays 2008). The 2010 census counted
5,300 individuals belonging to this group. They live
in Heilongjiang province in north eastern China, in
the Amur-Heilong and Ussuri-Wusuli river basins
along the border with Siberia, and their traditional
economy is based on hunting and fishing. The use of
fish skin clothing is a tradition shared by the Amur
River people, an area from the interior of Asia to the
Pacific Ocean in south eastern Siberia, north of the
Japanese island of Hokkaido and Sakhalin Island
(Fitzhugh, 1988).
Before synthetic fibres were invented, people
clothed themselves with the natural materials
available in the surroundings where they lived. In
the case of the Hezhe, it was fish skin (Jiao, 2012).
There are several reasons that could account for the
disappearance of the fish-skin clothing from the
everyday lives of the Hezhe. During the Japanese
occupation of Manchuria – the historic name of this
area of China – between 1931 and 1945, the Hezhe
were resettled or put in forced labour and their
numbers diminished to about 300 people. With the
foundation of the People’s Republic of China, in
1949, came relief to help the Hezhe rebuild their
communities. Despite the rebound in population,
overfishing and water pollution have caused fish
stocks to drop in the rivers and many Hezhe turned
to farming and tourism to make a living. The
shortage of raw materials and omnipresence of
modernity have challenged the preservation of the
craft (Lin, 2007). Better access to the modern world
meant the Hezhe were able to access textiles like
cotton and silk to create their clothing and many
young Hezhe moved away for their education and
work, leaving fewer people to fish and learn the
traditional crafts. There are currently only a few
people left who know how to create these fish skin
garments (Campbell, 2010).
In 2006, the Hezhen method of making clothes
with fish skin was listed a national intangible
cultural heritage, and You Wenfeng – our main
craftsperson during this workshop – was appointed
its heir. Fish skin clothing seemed at the verge to
extinction. However, it saw some hope with the
boom of tourism in the region (Jiao, 2012). With the
improvement of transportation, Jinkou Hezhen Folk
Park and other tourism projects have continued to
develop. The number of tourists has increased as
well as the interest in the traditional Hezhe fish skin
craft.
This paper seeks to draw attention to the vital
importance of traditional Fish skin craft to the Hezhe
as a basis for their culture and a component of their
identities and to encourage their artisans on re-
introducing such skills used by their ancestors
making a tool for community development.
The author proposes the continuation of the skills
through a craft-academic collaboration where she
has co-created a workshop with the local community
and experienced craftspeople have pass down the
endangered art to the next generation of fashion
students as part of a sustainable higher education
program.
Because fish skin craft is not an aspect of Hezh
culture that is commonly studied, this paper attempts
to fill a gap in the literature of the Hezhe minority
group. This paper will call for further research on
the topic of Hezhe crafts, Hezhe ethic identities and
their representation in Chinese society today.
2.4 Intangible Cultural Heritage context
In the convention for the safeguarding of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO defines
Intangible
Cultural Heritage as:
1. The ‘intangible cultural heritage’ means the
practices, representations, expressions,
knowledge, skills as well as the instruments,
objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated
therewith – that communities, groups and, in some
cases, individuals recognize as part of their
cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage,
transmitted from generation to generation, is
constantly recreated by communities and groups
in response to their environment, their interaction
with nature and their history, and provides them
with a sense of identity and continuity, thus
promoting respect for cultural diversity and
human creativity.
2. The ‘intangible cultural heritage,’ as defined in
the paragraph above, is manifested in the
following domains:
a. Oral traditions as a vehicle of the intangible
cultural heritage;
b. Knowledge and practices concerning nature
and the universe;
c. Traditional craftsmanship.
3. ‘Safeguarding’ means measures aimed at ensuring
the viability of the intangible cultural heritage,
including the identification, documentation,
research, preservation, protection, promotion,
enhancement, transmission, particularly through
formal and non-formal education, as well as the
revitalization of the various aspects of such heritage.
The physical cultural carriers are the materials.
But the non-physical cultural carriers are people,
their tools, the handicrafts and the cultural place
(Zhang, 2010). The interaction between higher
education students and craftspeople acts as cultural
carriers and allows cultural preservation and
conservation.
2.5 Environmental context
The fashion industry is currently going through a
significant change in its approach towards
sustainability (BCG, 2017) and must strive to
change and rethink its raw materials and processes.
FishSkinLab develops research that concentrates on
promoting a new category of raw materials for
fashion: fish leather.
A few underlying assumptions situate fish leather
as a more sustainable alternative:
− Fish skins are sourced from the food industry,
using what is now considered waste, applying the
principle of circular economy.
− Using food industry waste will result in a
reduction in the current level of pollution by the
food and fishing industry.
Global production of fish has steadily increased
over the last decade and more than 50% of the total
fish capture remaining material results in 32 million
tonnes of waste (Arvanito & Kassaveti, 2008).
While, to date, the European Environment
Protection agency allows seafood processors to
dispose fish skins in marine waters, this is expected
to change as the decomposing organic waste can
suck up available oxygen from marine species and
introduces disease to the local ecosystem (EPA,
2012). Consequently, the promotion and
preservation of fish leather craft could be of great
environmental benefit as well as profit for the
Chinese economy.
The project could be scaled up in other countries
such Japan and Russia, with history of use of fish
skin leather. By doing so, indigenous fishing
communities which used to subsist and dress
themselves with fish skin leather items like the Ainu
in Hokkaido, the Nanai in Siberia and Alaska’s Inuit
will be able to reach agreements with nearby fishing
plants for the supply of fish skins to get back
specialised in the development of their ancient crafts
and develop new fish skin craft productions that will
implement their economy.
3 INNOVATION
Products made of fish skin in the Heilongjiang
province have not change over the years. There is
room for innovation within their fish skin craft.
In the case of fish skin painting the arrival of
machine tanned fish skins makes the craftsman’s job
easier and quicker compared to the fish skin tanning
where the whole manual tanning process is involved.
In order not to lose completely the fish skin craft,
strategies must be implemented for its preservation
and promotion. We should use design methodologies
to rescue fish skin endangered cultural heritage and
make this most distinctive traditional culture
displayed again.
In an interventionist methodology, we propose the
use of new fish skin designs developed by fashion
HE students involved in this workshop for the
creation of new craft items such fish skin paintings
or fish bone paintings to be used by the Hezhe ethnic
minority crafts community.
These new designs will probably give a new
perspective of the traditional fish skin craft and lead
to new consumptions.
4 METHODOLOGY
To reflect upon the interaction of textile design
using traditional craft techniques, a bibliographic
and documentary research was initially done:
− Enquiry [Theory]. Following the fieldwork, data
was collected through primary and secondary
sources to reveal areas of potential development.
− Contextual and visual analysis.
− Making [Practice]. HE students produced fish
skin samples with the ethnic minority
craftspeople.
− Photographic documentation was used for
illustration and classification of results.
− Sharing [Dissemination]. Feedback has been
sought through activities such as conferences,
articles, teaching and communication via the
author’s website http://www.fishskinlab.com.
5 METHODS
Action research was used during this study. The data
was collected through:
− Archival research in museums to study traditional
knowledge in fish skin processing.
− Mapping traditional fish skin crafts to validate
their technical feasibility.
− The Field Trip covered the area around Jiejinkou
Hezhen Village ethnic museum, Heilongjiang
province, north east China by the Amur River
bank which empties into the Pacific Ocean in
south eastern Siberia.
− Workshop on fish skin leather craft to test ideas
through teaching and learning, observing students
design approaches using fish skin as an
alternative material for fashion.
− A documentary filmed during the workshop,
featuring interviews with students, curators and
craftsmen to observe students’ development of
fish skin finishes as a form of design research.
− Sketchbook development.
− Literature review.
6 ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION
6.1 Project creation
The workshop aim is an experiential learning
process, based on sustainability values, where the
students could create fish skin textile samples as a
practical educational model of sustainability in
action. The workshop seeks to develop a teaching
and learning experience most suited to Fashion
Design higher education.
The passing on of the fish skin knowledge and
skills is of great relevance as well as the immersive
experience at the remote ethnic minorities’ villages.
These fashion activities are meant to inspire deeper
relational connections amongst the students
involved, and between the students, the community
and their environment.
The experimental and exploratory nature of this
workshop has advanced the enquiry of Fashion
Design for Sustainability for the students and tutors
involved.
The project was created over a period of 10
months. A Slade School of Fine Art graduate,
Joseph Boon, was involved in this phase. He
contributed with his expert knowledge on fish skin
tanning that he achieved during the final year of his
BA. He learnt about the Hezhe people and decided
to create his own fish skin material. He
experimented with many different types of fish from
Billingsgate Fish Market including; Brill, Dover
Sole, Sea Bass, Flounder and Salmon to produce a
womenswear collection inspired by 40’s zoot suits
made out the fish skins he had tanned himself.
During the workshop he shared his knowledge
with the craftspeople and assisted students with the
tanning process.
6.2 Recruitment
The main objective for the IAIA was providing
educational consulting and application mentoring
from the author to the students involved.
The author was interested to develop an
immersive experiential learning process at the ethnic
minorities’ villages as a practical educational model
of sustainability in action.
Over a period of 10 months the author engaged
with UAL partners in China IAIA to contact local
craftspeople in Tongjiang village for the delivery of
the workshop. The two most skilful craftspeople in
the area were recruited for this purpose.
Wen Feng You is a Hezhe craftsperson born in
Tongjiang, she has spent all her life in the village,
receiving only a primary school education. Like the
rest of her family, she fished for a living. She has
learnt the fish skin craft from her mother and
grandmother. Since her mother passed away, Wen
Feng You has shouldered the responsibility of
keeping this dying craft alive.
When, in 2006, the Hezhen method of making
clothes with fish skin was listed a national intangible
cultural heritage, You Wen Feng You was appointed
its heir. She is now in her sixties and she has
produced more than 20 suits for museums in Japan
and China. Ms. You taught us traditional methods of
tanning fish skin developed by the Hezhe ethnic
minority.
Sun Yulin is a craftsperson in Jiejinkou Hezhen
County Tongjiang, Heilongjiang Province. His main
skills are fish skin painting and fish bone painting.
He has learnt the craft from his later uncle, and he
has passed down the craft to this wife and children.
The rise in recent years of the tourism industry
makes his fish skin paintings business grow steadily.
He is also invited to display the craftsmanship of
fish skin paintings in different areas in mainland
China.
In order to recruit the students involved in the
workshop IAA, the UAL partner in Beijing looked
for Chinese fashion and textiles students on their
first year at UAL institutions willing to improve
their portfolio skills and explore further alternative
sustainable fashion materials such fish skin working
with local ethnic minorities.
The project responds to a gap in local arts and
craft teaching provision. While the Chinese
government encourages the fish skin painting craft
and every year organises a small course for Chinese
University students, the fish skin tanning craft is
currently completely over looked by the
government.
6.3 Workshop location
The project was developed at Jiejinkou Hezhen
Village museum, located in the northeast of
Tongjiang City with mountains and rivers around it,
next to the Russian Border and connected to the
Jiejinkou National Forest Park. The village was
founded in 1936 and its population consists of Han,
Manchu, Korean, and Hezhen nationals. Currently
there are 70 households and 3,000 people in the
Village.
6.4 Workshop programme
The workshop was 10 days long and included:
− Sustainability background Introduction;
− Visit to museums;
− Fish skin tanning;
− Fish skin painting;
− Fish bone painting;
− Sketch development.
6.5 Sustainability background introduction
The group was briefed at an introductory session
providing inspiration, basic information regarding
ethics and sustainability of fish skin leather. Another
objective was to place this project in the frame of
alternative sustainable materials.
In order to adhere to this strategy, a comparative
study of different leathers and fish leather was made.
Suggestions for further reading and research were
given to students.
Figure 1. Fish skin painting workshop with Mr Sun Yu
Lin. Student’s work.
Figure 2. Fish skin tanning workshop with Mrs You Wen
Fen.
6.6 Visit to museums
The workshop included ethnographic fieldwork of
historical fish skin artefacts at national museums and
crafts communities. There were lectures on fish skin
artefacts at international collections.
The Jiejinkou Hezhen Village ethnic museum
displays the traditional lifestyle of Hezhe people.
Items in exhibit were collected from Sanjiang plain
area of Heilongjiang province. They cover a time
span from the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911) to modern
times.
The interaction between students and museum fish
skin collections helped their creative practice by
observing and translating traditional methods.
6.7 Fish skin tanning
We worked with salmons we bought at the fish
market. When processing the fish, we separated the
flesh and the skins, and cut off the fins. Then, we
scraped off any remaining bits with a birch knife.
We plastered the skins onto a wooden board to dry
for a day. Afterwards, we made sure the lines of the
skins were straight. We put several skins into layers
separated with corn flour to soak up the fish oil. We
rolled them into a cylinder and mash and soften
them in a large wooden scissor-like instrument.
Lastly, we softened the skins by rubbing pieces of
skin against each other.
The tanning methods differs enormously from the
ones developed by the Sami ethnic minority in
Scandinavia where fish skins are tanned using a bark
solution made from boiled sallow bark or using rape
seed oil, egg yolk and soap for oil tanning. It also
differs from the tanning methods used by the Ainu
ethnic minority in Hokkaido, Japan where skins are
stretched first and then smoked for 5 days inside the
Ainu home or chise.
6.8 Fish skin painting
Originally fish skin was used to make the paper
decorations outside of the Hezhe homes for Chinese
New Year. While in the rest of China were made of
paper, the Hezhe made them out of fish skin. The
original paintings had deities’ symbols on them and
later some local motifs reflecting the theme of
winter fishing started to appear. Currently Han
flower and animal motifs are the most popular ones.
We used machine tanned fish skins unlike our
previous workshop where we tanned our own skins.
The process of matching the skin colours proved to
be quite complicated. Students managed to innovate
with new designs and mixing media on their
artwork.
6.9 Fish bone painting
Historically fish bone paintings are created to
counteract evil force and are based on the folk
totem, evil counteracting animal. The animal is a
spirit animal in ancient Chinese legends and can
ward off evils. Fish bones are considered to be an
auspicious object for the Buddhists. Fish bone
painting, combining the two, can exorcise evil spirits
and keep a family peaceful, happy, and lucky. We
used fish bones with different shapes and sizes in a
canvas, drawing according to the shape of fish bones
to form a fish bone painting.
Figure 3. Fish Skin tanning workshop. Skinned salmons.
6.10 Sketchbook development
The workshop included a training on Sketchbook
development. Students documented the journey and
workshop through observation in sketchbooks with
drawings, research images and design process.
6.11 Project exhibition
The research process culminated in an event
involving the fashion students, tutors, craftspeople,
and the community at the Jiejinkou Hezhen village
ethnic museum to share the workshop results and
findings: final tanned fish skins, fish skin paintings,
fish bone paintings and sketchbooks related to the
research.
The IAIA organised a skype conference call with
over 500 students who witnessed the Hezhe dances
and singing session and the student’s crit.
6.12 Observations and participation
Observational and participatory methods were
utilised to obtain data. The author immersed herself
as a researcher physically into the fieldwork so she
could observe and experience first-hand.
Using fish skin material and processes to give
voice to their ideas, allowed the students to create a
range of textile samples. None of the participants
have worked with fish skin before and they felt the
material was rich and versatile. The key findings
from the questionnaire verified that students would
be prone to use fish skin in their work as an
alternative material to exotic skins.
Analysed data suggests that the participants were
happy to learn new hand craft techniques to
incorporate them into their own practice. Through
their textile samples students attempt to raise
awareness of local environmental issues and Hezhe
minority inequality and rights. Two of the
participants chose to use fish skin for their graduate
collections and they are currently developing
samples out of fish skins.
6.13 Ethical principles
The research project was introduced via
presentation, including visual materials. It was
clearly explained what the commitment to the
project was in terms of workshop attendance,
engagement in a discussion and the need of some
form of documentation of the process. An
Information Sheet, an Informed Consent Form, a
photography and video recording consent form and a
form with the interview questions was provided to
those participating in the project. These documents
were translated in accordance to the individual
requirements.
The research project involved participation of
craftspeople from the Hezhe ethnic minority and one
of their representatives from the Intangible Cultural
Heritage Protection Centre was involved in the
implementation of the project to help build trust
between the craftspeople and the researcher to
ensure the use of culturally and socially appropriate
research techniques from the start of the project for
the physical and mental comfort of the participants.
The workshop involved using animal skins (fish
skins) from salmon. They are by-products of the
food industry and have not been farmed for the sole
purpose of the fashion industry use. They are not
endangered species. The workshop did not involve
the use of elements that may cause harm to the
environment, animals or plants.
7 FINDINGS
Feedback from participants, craftspeople, and
museum curators suggest that the passing on the fish
skin knowledge and skills was of great relevance to
them as well as the immersive experience at the
Jiejinkou Hezhen Village. This fashion activity
managed to inspire deeper relational connections
amongst the students involved, and between the
students and the Hezhe community and their
environment.
Working outside of the classroom can provoke a
learning method that usually does not occur in the
university campus.
The workshop created opportunities for students
to meet remote communities and their ancient fish
skin leather craft by:
− Observation of the community, their crafts and
environment.
− Reflexion, research and creative design process.
− Prototyping of traditional fish skin samples
Students became the main players in realising
resilience through the community-in-place.
Craftsmen were inspired to teach a different group
of people and they assimilated students’ ideas and
techniques for their own future work.
The Anglo-Chinese network has blended the high
skills of Chinese craftspeople with British cutting-
edge sustainable design education.
The workshop seeks to inspire Academia involved
in the development of sustainability and
craftsmanship within their curriculums to implement
this transformative teaching and learning experience
in their own practice which in turn may contribute to
public debate on sustainability issues in the fashion
industry (Fletcher & Williams, 2010). Development
of sustainability within the curriculum has been
identified as a high priority (Reid 2011). The hope is
that the observations gathered through the workshop
will aid to understand how to embody craftsmanship
and sustainability content in fashion HE practices.
8 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
Fish skin craft is regarded as Intangible Cultural
Heritage in China. It is important to find ways to
preserve and promote it within its own Hezhe
community and with younger generations. The
researcher concludes that it is possible to introduce
new designs into fish skin craft. Innovations can
give bigger visibility to this craft which will
disappeared unless there are new interventions
happening. The target of fish skin tourism product
marketing should bring mutual benefit to local
craftspeople developing national economy and
protecting ethnic culture (Chen, 2009).
Once the project is over – as a longer-term aim/
potential legacy of the project – findings could be
delivered in the shape of craft workshops for higher
education students to align universities with the
United Nations in actively supporting principles in
the areas of sustainability. The project could be
implemented through a programme of workshops for
Fashion higher education students in those areas
where fish skin leather was originated (Scandinavia,
Alaska, Hokkaido island, Japan and Siberia).
Craftspeople from ethnic minorities will pass down
the endangered fish skin craft techniques and will
benefit from preservation of their craft. Students will
benefit from education in craft and sustainability.
Thanks to the FishSkinLab project, the author has
advanced knowledge on fish skin craft and has been
able to deliver two more workshops developing
methods of tanning fish skin in areas where
traditionally fish skin was developed:
− Nordic fish skin workshop, Blondous, Iceland.
Workshop in collaboration with the fish leather
tannery Atlantic Leather at the Icelandic Textile
Centre with the participation of students from top
Nordic Universities: Iceland University of the
Arts, Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Boras
University, Sweden; Aalto University, Finland
and Central Saint Martins College of Art, UK.
Funded by the Nordic Culture Fund and the
Society of Dyers and Colourists.
− Nibutani Ainu culture museum, Hokkaido, Japan.
Workshop on Ainu Fish leather craftsmanship
with students from Japanese universities: Bunka
Gakuen, Osaka Bunka, Kyoto Seika University.
Funded by FRPAC. Foundation for Research and
Promotion of Ainu Culture, the Japan Foundation
Endowment Committee and The Great Britain
Sasakawa Foundation.
The long perspective for the network will be a
knowledge exchange to build a cultural network on
Fish skin craft innovation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The FishSkinLab project was possible thanks to the
support from AHRC LDoc London Doctoral Design
Centre scholarship, IAIA, the Jiejinkou Hezhen
Village ethnic museum, the Hezhe ethnic minority
craftspeople Mrs Wen Feng You and Mr Sun Ylin.
A big thank you to the student participants, curators
and photographers.
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