A virtual Ainu fish skin workshop during Covid-19 times

Abstract

From April to June 2020, during the Covid-19 isolation, Ran Graber, a third-year student of Shenkar University, Tel Aviv, elected to study and remake a 19th century fish skin attush (Ainu robe), under the guidance of Elisa Palomino, Orit Freilich, Ran Kassas and Debbie Elhayeni, as part of the F4*3D course. This small project of individuals-one student, one course, one study, one sample-nevertheless brought together workwear and artwear, utilitarianism and spirituality, ancient tradition/history, contemporary society, and future thinking. It bought together Tel Aviv, London, and Hokkaido-as well as all of you here now, from across the globe. By disseminating the ancient Indigenous Ainu fish skin craft-as exemplified in this robe-to a non-Indigenous student, we were able not only to provide an example of an environmentally sustainable alternative material for fashion, but also, in so doing, to suggest a way of preventing marine pollution by exploiting skins discarded by the food industry that would otherwise be thrown in the sea. We were able to sustain an endangered historic tradition, to bring it to a new arena, and to plant the seeds of its further dissemination as the fashion students graduate and become industry professionals across the world. The paper is centred on the research questions: 'How can we assist fashion students in developing sustainable materials by sharing traditional fish skin craft from Ainu Indigenous Peoples?' 'How can a faculty provide creative new ways of teaching that benefit both staff and students during difficult times?'

Full text

____________________
Corresponding author's email:
e.palomino@csm.arts.ac.uk
A virtual Ainu fish skin workshop during Covid-19 times
Elisa Palomino
Central Saint Martins / University of the Arts, UK
Orit Freilich
Shenkar College of Engineering Design& Art, Israel
Isaac Raine
Central Saint Martins / University of the Arts, UK
Abstract
From April to June 2020, during the Covid-19 isolation, Ran Graber, a third-year student of Shenkar University,
Tel Aviv, elected to study and remake a 19th century fish skin attush (Ainu robe), under the guidance of Elisa
Palomino, Orit Freilich, Ran Kassas and Debbie Elhayeni, as part of the F4*3D course. This small project of
individuals – one student, one course, one study, one sample – nevertheless brought together workwear and
artwear, utilitarianism and spirituality, ancient tradition/history, contemporary society, and future thinking.
It bought together Tel Aviv, London, and Hokkaido – as well as all of you here now, from across the globe.
By disseminating the ancient Indigenous Ainu fish skin craft – as exemplified in this robe – to a non-Indigenous
student, we were able not only to provide an example of an environmentally sustainable alternative material
for fashion, but also, in so doing, to suggest a way of preventing marine pollution by exploiting skins discarded
by the food industry that would otherwise be thrown in the sea. We were able to sustain an endangered
historic tradition, to bring it to a new arena, and to plant the seeds of its further dissemination as the fashion
students graduate and become industry professionals across the world.
The paper is centred on the research questions:
‘How can we assist fashion students in developing sustainable materials by sharing traditional fish skin craft
from Ainu Indigenous Peoples?'
‘How can a faculty provide creative new ways of teaching that benefit both staff and students during difficult
times?'

Keywords: Ainu Indigenous Peoples; Fish Skin Craft; Traditional Knowledge; Fashion Education for
Sustainability; Food Industry By-Product.
ISBN: 978-989-54263-2-4

Fig. 1 Ran Graber's sketchbook
Fish Leather as an alternative material for fashion
Fashion is a global industry. The problems of the world are the problems of fashion, in cause and effect. These
environmental, social, and economic challenges, very real to the fashion world, are only microcosms of their
global equivalents. The growing environmental crisis calls urgently for action. The Covid-19 pandemic
presented an immediate crisis, necessitating rapid and radical change. While bringing new problems in its
wake, it demonstrated our ability to adapt, at speed. Now we need to match this reactivity to the global
environmental crisis. Because the issues and implications are literally global, there is no single solution -
rather a series of endeavours contributing to overall amelioration. We hope that this workshop may be one
such endeavour.
The fashion industry creates massive, acknowledged pollution. The leather industry contributes to
greenhouse gases through deforestation for grazing cattle and the methane they release. Bovine leather is
slow and expensive to grow (even without ensuring good quality of life before slaughter). Vegan leather
alternatives are bonded with up to 40% of fossil fuel-based polymers that will never biodegrade. Fish leather
provides an alternative with positive environmental, social, and economic implications that are practical,
practiced, and practicable.
Fish - for food - is an established, flourishing sector. Fish has significant nutritional benefits over meat, is
more rapidly harvestable and does not add to carbon emissions. Fish leather, a by-product from fileting,
would otherwise be thrown back into the ocean, creating 20 million tons of discards yearly, worldwide. This

is not just a double good preventing pollution and creating a product from a free source, it is multiply positive
- lessening the need for environmentally damaging leather, while creating a circular economy; providing local
employment; increasing a sense of community; keeping alive an endangered ancient craft; and, finally,
providing the demanding fashion industry with novelty and beauty.
This case study creates a concatenation of players and of impact - the coat, the course, the teachers, the Ainu,
the world. The coat is studied as part of the course, supervised by the teachers, drawing on Ainu subsistence
resourcefulness in the face of adversity – which outlook speaks to a world shaken now by the adversities of
Covid, and in the immediate future by those of the climate crisis. This is how the elements link: for clarity, we
will discuss them one by one.
Ainu Indigenous Peoples and fish skin
The use of fish skin to create articles of clothing is an ancient tradition shared by Arctic and Sub Arctic
societies along rivers and coasts. This grouping encompasses Iceland to the Sami region in Scandinavia –
Sweden, Norway, and Finland – through the Russian Far East, Northeast China, the traditional Ainu islands of
Hokkaido in Japan and Sakhalin in Russia, to the North American Arctic in the east (Palomino, 2021). Before
synthetic fibres were invented, people clothed themselves with whatever they could – namely the natural
materials available in their surroundings - like fish skin (Palomino, 2020). Subsistence living in a harsh climate
requires frugality, intelligence, and resourcefulness. Nothing is wasted – because waste could be a matter of
life and death. We must learn from this now, and change, lest our profligacy be the death of us.
The Ainu are an Indigenous Peoples of Japan (Hokkaidō and formerly North-Eastern Honshū) and Russia
(Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Khabarovsk Krai, and the Kamchatka Peninsula). The Ainu economy was based on
hunting, fishing (figure 3), and gathering. Ainu people made clothes by sewing together fish skins such as
those of salmon and trout. For Ainu Indigenous Peoples (figure 2), their relationship with fish plays an
important role in maintaining their identities, creating important ties with the environment. The Ainu
indigenous people drew a sense of their identity in relation to fish; for them, fish, man, and the environment
were all one, all equal.

Fig 2. Ainu man. Hata, Awagimaru. Ezotō Kikan. Japan Fig 3. Ainu men fishing. Hata, Awagimaru. Ezotō Kikan.
1799. Library of Congress. Washington DC Japan 1799. Library of Congress. Washington DC.
Throughout the centuries, fish were the main bounty of the Ainu land. The perennial river and lake fish were
joined each year by spawning transient newcomers: humpback salmon, chum, taimen and hucho. Natural
resources (primarily fish) determined the lifestyle and economic activity of the Ainu. Even the pattern of
settlement was determined by their fishing habits - mainly in areas of abundant fish stock - on the seashore,
in gulfs and at the mouths of rivers, in lagoons or in the centre of islands close to spawning rivers (Takasami,
1998).The Ainu placed primary importance on fish as a food resource, fresh in summer and spring,
and preserved for later use in winter - when they subsisted on it.
Fish are deeply related to the Ainu religion. Fish not only nurtured the body but also the soul. The Ainu revere
multiform spiritual entities - kamui - God-spirits, who will visit the earth assuming the forms or flora, fauna,
and forces of nature. The communication between the Ainu and these multiform entities is expressed
through a sensitive approach to working with natural materials, and the creation of objects and clothing
under an aesthetic imbued with spirituality. Traditionally, the Ainu made their clothes with the materials
resulting from their "exchanges" with various animal and plant species. As with all the fishing populations of
the Amur River basin and the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, fish skin was their preferred traditional material,
which they worked with care and reverence (Cevoli, 2015).

Despite the importance of salmon to the Ainu, the Japanese government banned their salmon fishing in the
1870s, as Part of the Meiji regime’s enforced assimilation policies, during their colonization of Hokkaido.
Consequently, Ainu people who relied on salmon to support their families were prohibited from fishing it.
This had a negative impact on the Indigenous population. Today, the Ainu people are engaged in a movement
attempting to reassert their rights as Indigenous Peoples and to restore important elements of their
traditional culture like their fishing rights (Ichikawa, 2003).
Historical fish skin artefacts in international museums
During the workshop Elisa shared with Ran a series of Ainu fish skin artefacts from archives and museum
collections that she had visited during her previous fieldwork around the Hokkaido Island of Japan. The 19th
and early 20th century objects shared with Ran are everyday items of clothing (Figure 4), bags, boots, and
mittens. Today, these artefacts are sought after for their artistic value, craft, and representation of cultural
development, and of humanity adapting to a wide range of environmental conditions (Fitzhugh, 2007). The
museums' fish skin artefacts provided the student with an overall idea of the original culture of the Sakhalin
and Hokkaido Ainu: their main economic activities (fishing, hunting, gathering and agriculture); domestic
activities and handcrafts (wood processing, weaving, fur, and fish skin processing); their everyday items,
spiritual culture, and traditional religious beliefs, which we shall further discuss later.
Fig. 4. Ainu fish skin attush. 19th century. Sapporo University Fig. 5. Painting it in a negative form with white
Museum. Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. chalk on black paper. Part of Orit’s “toolbar”.
The coat at the centre of this case study, and the focus of Ran’s project, is an Ainu man’s fish skin attush from
Sapporo University Museum in Hokkaido, Japan (Figure 4). Fish skins used in the manufacture of garments
like this one were softened by being beaten with a wood mallet after they were dry. This coat, which has

wide kimono-like sleeves, reaches to the knees. It is constructed of rectangular rows of nearly whole salmon
skins. Since each skin, when opened flat, narrows toward the tail, there is a triangular gap between some
pairs of skins. These gaps are filled with separate pieces of skin. The design of this coat has carefully worked
with the shape left by the removed fish's fins, filling the holes left by the fins with lighter fish skins to create
a pattern. Despite the many pieces of fish skin used, a careful effort at matching has assured a uniform colour
for the garment. There are, however, many places on this robe where small, irregularly shaped pieces of fish
skin have been used to fill oddly shaped areas. Where the individual skins meet one another, an overcast
stitch is used. On the front opening, a double strip of black dyed quilted cotton cloth has been sewn. There
is also a band of black cotton at the cuffs and across the bottom. There are finer or more worked examples
of other Ainu fish skin robes, but this this is a very utilitarian piece of workwear, as befits the F4*3D fashion
course.
Workshop Content
The structured framework for the study of this coat was provided by the F4*3D Fashion course at Shenkar
University. The course is inspired by the quotation from 19th century architect Louis Sullivan: "Form Follows
Function", in this case "Fashion Form Follows Function" (Sullivan, 1988). This course, unique in the
university's syllabus, eschews fashion to focus exclusively on workwear. Since workwear is designed for
functionality and performance rather than aesthetics, it can be construed almost as anti-fashion. Perhaps it
is more ‘antidote’, rather than just ‘anti’. Utilitarian, functional and robust, workwear is designed and
constructed to withstand and endure. There is no planned obsolescence here. Innocent of fashionable
elements, it is outside fashion, and so can outlast it. Having no need for excessive volume, frills or
ornamentation, workwear is made more economically, more ecologically than fashion wear. Its form,
stemming from its function, is equally more essential, less frivolous – not to beautify or denote status, but to
aid the worker in his operation, or protect him from its dangers. In this age of climate crisis, of apparel
ambivalence, of fast fashion, of an outmoded, unsustainable six season year, the essentially fundamental,
functional simplicity of workwear speaks powerfully.
The Fashion F4*3D course has been taught in Shenkar's fashion design department for seven years, by
fashion designer Orit Freilich, industrial designer Ran Kasses, and technician specializing in pattern cutting
and sewing, Debbie Elhayeni. The course provides a broad vision, combining industrial and conceptual design
methodologies, bringing an industrial perspective to a fashion study of technical apparel.
Workshop programme
The workshop was 3 months long and included different activities:
− Sustainability background Introduction
− Cultural appropriation
− Historical fish skin artefacts in international museums

− Shamanistic aspects of fish skin
− Sketchbook development.
− Power Point Presentation including sketches, fabric samples, paper-patterns, toile, and 30 digital multi-
deconstructed collages and photographs.
− Pattern cutting of a historical fish skin robe replica
− Fish skin Digital Printing
In the workshop, the students choose an item they have researched that represents a working garment
dating back to the 19th century. From this original they make an exact replica. The replica is made based on
the original patterns as gleaned from a study of the object itself in the Rose Archive at Shenkar or taken from
images in books and the internet. The process of making the replica is relatively short: 3-4 weeks. The
students develop a design process considering a combination of both conceptual and practical methods.
Fig. 6 and 7. Hand drawings of Ainu fish skin robe and fish skin scale details by Ran Graber.
Producing an exact replica of a specific item of a utility clothing worn by a craftsman/professional, the
students examine how its design derives from its function. The research is done through visual mapping. They
first collect images of the craftsman/worker wearing his or her designated garment and examine the
purposes for which the clothing has been evolved. Does it protect or facilitate? What are the materials from
which it is made and what the variety of elements that allow it to fulfil its intended functions?
Usually, the students isolate a clear photograph of the chosen garment (figure 4) and transcribe its negative
form with white chalk on black paper (Figure 5). The critical deciphering process begins as dimensions are
plotted from hand drawn studies of photographs of the original garment (figures 6 and 7), from which a
paper pattern is developed, then worked, draped and adjusted on the mannequin. This is used to create a

toile, (figure 11) and then finally, the replica itself. In the final review, they present their replica and the study,
detailing the specific form and function of the garment, its component materials and its continued use,
modification, or abandonment in the present day. They also analyze the difference between their replica and
the original.
Fig. 8 and 9."Toolbar" developed by Orit working with collages. Collages by Ran Graber.
This case study follows Ran Graber’s remaking of the Ainu fish skin coat. Taking place during stringent covid
lockdown, geographical distance was critical but irrelevant. Neither he, nor his tutors could travel to college,
but they could unite through zoom, virtually, at a moment’s notice, whether in Tel Aviv or London. Adversity
promoted resourcefulness and limitations became advantages. Without external distractions, Ran’s work
with his tutors was intensely focused. He received a unique "toolbar" that Orit had developed for practicing
his design skills by working with collage (Figure 8 and 9) and establishing all kind of textures "that mimic" the
original replica (Figure 7) besides bringing some fabrics in order to expand as much as possible the student's
range of craftsmanship and his creativity in order to offer an outfit inspired by the Ainu replica he made with
his own hands.
During the creation of the workshop content, the tutors’ concerns were as much pastoral as academic. It was
vital not only to impart knowledge to Ran - all the information of the Ainu coat came from the photographs
Elisa had taken when she visited several museums in the Hokkaido Island of Japan - but to keep him inspired
and connected during a period when students were suffering from the lack of classroom interaction that
afflicts remote learning. This online platform provided excitement, connection, a new fish skin craft expertise

and the opportunity to engage with remote Ainu knowledge, as well as with museum artefacts, bringing an
awareness of ancient traditions to modern industrial concerns.
Both Central St Martins and Shenkar maintain an approach to fashion education based on the development
of manual skills of drawing and illustration, paper patternmaking, sewing, fabric manipulation, draping fabric
on mannequins, silk-screen printing, and hand-dyeing. The student, confined at home with limited materials
and technologies, was prompted to reconsider, recuperate, and upcycle, and so to reflect on
overconsumption, waste and the scarcity that follows. The practical prompted the philosophical. Using
materials available from home created a reciprocity between craftsmanship and innovation, producing by
hand new materials (Mallon, 2020).
Just as the tutors’ concerns were as much pastoral as academic, so too this F4*3D course is designed not only
to reproduce, but to prompt analysis and understanding of intangible concepts – sustainability and cultural
appropriation.
The workshop was part of the EU Horizon 2020 funded project FishSkin, 'Developing fish leather as a
sustainable alternative within the fashion industry'. The project proposed the sustainable development of
fish skin as an innovative raw material for the fashion industry to encourage more sustainable fashion
practices.
The main project objectives were:
−Helping Higher Education students engage in sustainability by developing fish skin inspired shapes and
material samples as an environmentally responsible alternative material for fashion. 
−Bringing together sustainable methods from fashion design and traditional crafts to foster the international
exchange of knowledge. 
−Identifying tools about best practice in fish skin craft and testing the ideas at fashion higher education
institutions internationally. 
-Preserving and disseminating the Ainu cultural heritage connected with fish skin.
This project described the methods of sustainable material engagement and the full immersive experience
through an online teaching approach. The paper analysed its findings in order to recommend transferable
skills for educational models, for this project to be further disseminated.
Sustainability: a background Introduction
The student was briefed with in an introductory session providing inspiration, basic information regarding
ethics and sustainability of fish skin. An important 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. Comparing fish leather with other sustainable materials highlighted aspects of

the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity, and the depletion of finite resources. Contemporary issues around
animal rights and the possibility of replacing exotic leathers from endangered species with fish leather were
also raised and discussed. Fish leather as a food waste by-product and its high market value was equally
mentioned. Fish leather's environmental, aesthetic, technical and social characteristics were shared and
compared with vegan, exotic (crocodile/snake) and faux leathers as alternatives. Suggestions for further
reading and research were given to the student.
Fish skin and Education for Sustainable Development
This workshop took inspiration from sustainability education in fashion, emerging from ecological and
participatory research at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion. It followed CSF’s six
pedagogic principles for sustainability education through practice (Fletcher, 2013). These are futures thinking,
critical and creative thinking, participation and participatory learning, systemic thinking, interdisciplinarity,
and place-based learning. The workshop followed academic scholarship by Fashion sustainable researchers
Dilys Williamsand Kate Fletcher (2010, 2013) on how to embody sustainability content in fashion Higher
Education practices drawing connections between people and nature. The study drew on their approach to
a fashion education that is oriented towards creative participation in social, and environmental aspects.
Cultural appropriation
Issues of cultural appropriation were carefully considered and discussed during the workshop. The intention
was to preserve and disseminate the Ainu cultural heritage connected with fish skin, but in so doing, it was
essential to try to avoid any form of cultural appropriation. This refers to the taking of someone else’s
culture— their intellectual property, artifacts, art form, style —without their permission. It is a fraught issue.
The term culture has the potential to embrace an infinity of aspects - dance, dress, music, language, folklore,
cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols – that are increasingly intangible. What is culture? And who
decides who is entitled to give permission for its appropriation? If a member of a relatively privileged group
writes a story about a member of a marginalized group, this may be an act of cultural appropriation and
therefore could do harm. A wide variety of acts and practices are condemned as cultural appropriation
(Scafidi, 2005).
Fashion has been criticized for constantly taking inspiration from Indigenous communities, from materials to
designs. Fish skin knowledge sharing does have the potential to be seen as detrimental to Indigenous
communities since it is their own traditional knowledge passed down by many generations, which they feel
possessive about.
There are always concerns around cultural appropriation; this process was no exception. The researcher Elisa
Palomino mitigated these by openly discussing the use of fish skin with the student in a respectful manner.

She had used Shaginoff's methodologies of Land Acknowledgment (Shaginoff, 2021) publicly recognizing the
Ainu Indigenous peoples whose traditional fish skin craft was studied. In her guidance of the student, she
covered:-recognizing the Ainu Indigenous Peoples, consulting with Indigenous-led organizations, educating
oneself on the Indigenous histories, their resilience and the current work Indigenous Peoples are doing for
their tribal communities.
The workshops and the research behind them attempted to pass on the fish skin craft from Arctic Indigenous
communities, preserving and protecting them. The workshops have been envisioned as the beginning of a
continuing and expanding discourse on the future of fish skin craft. Collaboration of the researcher with
Indigenous partners has enormously enriched the understanding of this material. The experiences gained
continue to guide and inform the methods and attitudes she uses and will continue to use working generally
and with Native communities.
Fashion can be(come) a space of empathy, a vehicle for connection. Great artists maintain the quality of their
awareness of others, the responsiveness to other people, what it is like to live in other people's realities. We
need to acknowledge how connected we are to one another and to hold the vision of a shared humanity
(Morton, 2020). Indeed, fear of cultural appropriation could lead to division, isolationism, xenophobia and
even racism. We need to learn from each other, to share knowledge and resources. The climate crisis, from
which we will all suffer, was not caused by the actions of the Indigenous communities but by the non-
marginalized societies. Moreover, it is precisely these Indigenous communities that are the first to suffer the
impacts of the climate crisis that they did not cause. These communities have a knowledge and respect for
the environment that we have lost, thereby risking the loss of the environment itself. We need to learn from
them, and we need to start now.
This fish skin craft is only one of many examples of an Indigenous model providing an environmentally
sustainable alternative to current practice. The move towards sustainability in fashion practice, via
dissemination of such knowledge, without cultural appropriation, is a primary concern of this case study of
Ran’s project.
We learned from Ran as he learned from us, from himself and from the Ainu. This project was never a simple
xeroxing of the original workwear – but the current global situation bought unforeseen consequences.
Pattern cutting of a historical fish skin robe replica
Debby, the pattern cutting tutor, had to teach Ran how to develop the pattern of the Ainu robe online. Ran
did not have paper to create his patterns or a dummy to try it on, nor, in the covid lockdown, was he able to
obtain them. He had to think frugally, to maximize the resources available to him. He sat down with the
photographs of the Ainu robe to make the pattern by himself at home. Without pattern cutting paper, he
used leftovers from photocopies or newspaper taped together to create a huge bit of paper, from which to
cut the patterns. He took pictures of the pattern on the floor and shared them with Debby online. The Ainu

pattern is a relatively easy one, so it was not a particularly complicated task. With calico leftovers from
previous projects, he created the Ainu toile (figure 11). Without a mannequin, he fitted the toile on his own
body. He handpainted fish skin texture on each calico pattern piece mimicking the scales of the salmon (figure
10). He turned adversity into advantage, and overcame want with an abundance of creative, freethinking
frugality - like the Ainu peoples, whose coat he was studying.
Fig. 10 Hand painting of the fish skin texture on each calico pattern piece. Fig. 11. Ainu fish skin toile and pattern pieces by Ran Graber
He also bought to the project and garment an unexpected spirituality, customary for the Ainu,
unprecedented in Tel Aviv.
Shamanistic aspects of fish skin: the kamui
The Ainu of Sakhalin Island and northern Hokkaido are spiritually connected with the multiform spiritual
entities that surround them, whom they call kamui (spirits). As many hunter-gatherers and north-eastern
Siberians, their religion revered god-spirits, who would visit the Earth in the forms of flora, fauna, and forces
of nature (Geoffroy, 2018). Shamans were among the most important people in the Ainu populations, as
intercessors with the god spirits. The Ainu Indigenous Peoples embroidered and applied design motifs on
traditional fish skin garments to grant the wearer protection against evil spirits. On early Ainu salmon-skin
attush (Ainu robe) garments (Figure 3), women embroidered design motifs placed on the borders of all the
openings of the traditional tunics (collar, arms, legs, front fastening, and hem) and all the edges to prevent
evil spirits from entering the body openings. The motifs had structured symbolic references - the upper
borders represented the Upper World and the motifs placed there offered protection in that direction, the
hem represented the underworld or underwater world; and the central parts represented the world
inhabited by humans (Krutak, 2012). These clothes offered as much spiritual as practical protection - and the
Ainu saw no distinction between the two.
The original idea of the fish skin workshop had been to make a replica of a historical item of workwear that
enabled the wearer to function and/or protected him whilst so doing. In choosing to reproduce a 19th
century Ainu hunter coat of fish skin (Figure 4), Ran was prompted to reflect on the practical usage of the

coat, how to transform it into protective gear. During the Covid lockdown, the student's mother was working
as a nurse in a local hospital treating Covid patients, in the frontline and at high risk. She was afraid of getting
infected with the disease and transmitting it at home. And Ran was scared for her. He shared with us tutors,
his anxiety about his mother's health.
Elisa told him about Ainu shamans and the spiritual roles of fish skin robes. Ran decided to include spiritual
aspects into the coat he was making to create a powerful fish skin robe like the ones worn by shamans in the
past, with protective properties - in this case against Covid. The student used one of his mother's health care
personal protective equipment gowns (Figures 12 and 13) as a base onto which he applied the traditional
Ainu fish skin shapes. This bought him to question what makes people feel safe, and how his mother felt
wearing this gift from him. Ran was able to bring spiritual aspects of the Ainu and past shamanic traditions
into contemporary context. His isolation in lockdown acted like a shamanic initiation into fish skin craft.
Fig. 12 and 13. Health care personal protective equipment gown with Ainu fish skin shapes drawn into it by Ran Graber.
During the Covid lockdown, students did not have the required materials and teachers were not there to help
them physically. When you have limited resources, you need to find alternatives and become very resourceful.
Likewise, Ainu Indigenous Peoples lived in Sub Arctic regions thriving in subsistence economies where
resources were precious, and they used fish skins in a resourceful and efficient manner. This was also an
ethical position made out of respect to the animal (Palomino, 2020). Once the lockdown restrictions were
finished, the student returned to the classroom at Shenkar. His project had been very focused when he was
at home but when he came out of lockdown, he lost a lot of focus and interest in the project. This is
symptomatic of humankind. When you have more resources, you stop being so careful with them. We knew
this already, but the case study taught us to recognise it once more.
Fish skin Digital Printing
Once the Covid lockdown eased, Ran was advised by Orit Freilich to make a decision whether to use real fish

skins for the final garment that he was developing. Orit made the link between the student and the Icelandic
tannery Nordic Fish Leather for the purchase of the fish skins. Afterwards Orit made a liaison between the
student and the company Kornit digital printers (an Israeli company who are part of the EU Horizon 2020
project, Fishskin) to print his designs on fish skins from Nordic Fish Leather (Figures 14 and 15). Printing the
fish leather goes against the utilitarian principles of the F4*3D course but it brings it into a new arena and
makes it part of the modern world.
Kornit printing technology is based on a subtract method of wet-on-wet technology. They provide a pre-
treatment spraying water with some ingredients changing the viscosity of the inks and then printing the ink.
The sprayed water promotes the absorption of the inks. Fish leather had very good absorption. There is then
a curing process using dry air temperature. The usual temperature used for printing polyesters is 120 degrees
for 20 minutes, but this temperature is problematic with fish skin as, due to its collagen content, high
temperatures damage the skin and promote shrinkage. Kornit optimised the temperature down to 90
degrees to cure the inks without further shrinkage.
Kornit uses another technology called FOF printing ink and their own trademark ingredients. FOF technology
can print only on light materials using a light ink on the roll-to-roll machine. FOF gives the advantage to print
on non-absorbed skins. The fish skins (figure 14) were printed for free as part of the EU Horizon 2020 funded
project FishSkin, 'Developing fish leather as a sustainable alternative within the fashion industry'.
Fig. 14. Digitally printed Fish skin using Kornit's FOF technology Fig. 15 Salmon print by Ran Graber.
Conclusions
The increase of communication and availability of different individuals across the planet during the Covid
lockdown has provided the participants with a closer relationship to each other and with nature. The crisis
has brought about a shift in the perception of nature and the role of humankind within it, as keeper, rather
than despoiler. Ainu Indigenous Peoples have much to teach us in this respect, and now is surely a time for

them to be heard, and for us to listen. Traditional Indigenous knowledge and resilience stems from paying
attention and being a part of your environment, experiencing and learning from it collectively (Clement 2020).
To navigate perilous times, ancient shamans drew inspiration from nature, harmonising the fire, water, earth,
and air elements. The Ainu fish skin workshop has offered the student and tutors a way to help us through
these challenging times of disorientation, distress, and challenge, strengthening our connection with nature,
and with matters reaching even beyond the realm of science.
The Ainu fish skin workshop has challenged and merged the digital and crafts environment during the
pandemic. Younger generations from any background must be equipped both with traditional skills to thrive
culturally and with digitalization skills needed for success in the modern world (Chaussonnet 1995). The
digital needs to accompany the analogue, the two working together, rather than in competition.
The workshop has proposed taking the best both worlds have to offer. In this digital age, it can make new
and sustainable connections between the virtual world and traditional craft. It can bring a spiritual
understanding to the practical. It has allowed the student and tutors from different backgrounds and
nationalities to come closer despite physical distance and pandemic lockdown, forging life-enhancing
connections in a time of isolation. This online fish skin workshop created a new form of communication and
learning when classrooms, museums and libraries were closed.
It sought to inspire Academia involved in the development of sustainability and craftsmanship within their
curricula. We hope that this transformative teaching and learning experience may be absorbed and repeated
in other practices, 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 help us understand how to embody
craftsmanship and sustainability content in fashion Higher Education practices.
Through the workshop, the student has built on the knowledge, skills, and traditions of Fish skin technology,
engaged in learning activities based on traditional ways of knowing and learning, demonstrated awareness
and appreciation of natural resources, and began to understand how humans and nature interact.
Future Work
Now that this project is over, we can consider its longer-term aim and potential legacy. The findings could be
delivered in the shape of design workshops for Higher Education students, aligning universities with the
United Nations, in actively supporting principles of sustainability. The project could be implemented through

a programme of workshops for Fashion Higher Education students in those areas where fish skin leather
originated (Scandinavia, Alaska, Hokkaido Island, Japan, and Siberia). Craftspeople from ethnic minorities
could pass down the endangered fish skin craft techniques and would benefit from preservation of their craft.
Students will benefit from education in craft and sustainability – the world, and us with it, will benefit from
any and every increase in sustainability.
Thanks to this project, the author Elisa Palomino has advanced knowledge on fish skin craft and has been
able to deliver four more workshops developing methods of tanning fish skin in areas where traditionally fish
skin was developed:
− Nordic fish skin workshop, Blondous, Iceland. This was a 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 and fish skin craftsperson Lotta Rahme.
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, and fish skin
craftsperson Shigerhiro Takano. Funded by FRPAC. Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture,
the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee and The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. 
− Hezhen fish skin workshop, Workshop on Hezhen Fish leather craftsmanship with Chinese students from
UAL and with Indigenous crafts people Wen Feng You and Sun Yin. Funded by IAIA, the Jiejinkou Hezhen
Village ethnic museum, the Hezhen ethnic minority craftspeople. 
− Alutiiq Fishskin tanning workshop. Online workshop on Alutiiq Fish leather craftsmanship with Indigenous
craftsperson June Pardue as a response to Covid 19. 
Elisa Palomino In her role as BA Fashion Print lecturer at Central Saint Martins has shared the sum of this
knowledge with her students and learned again from them in the process. They, in their turn, have been keen
to disseminate this knowledge further amongst their friends and classmates and - as they become
professionals - within the fashion industry. It has been a truly global project. She has created a series of fish
skin craft workshops, in situ, bringing fashion students from Nordic, Chinese, Japanese, and American
backgrounds to the specific Indigenous communities with historical evidence of fish skin production to learn
from them and from each other. When the Covid pandemic rendered travel impossible, she made these
workshops virtual. One such, is this case study.

Acknowledgements
The research has been funded by the EU Horizon 2020-MSCA-RISE-2018. Research and Innovation Staff
Exchange Marie Sklodowska Curie GRANT NUMBER 823943: FishSkin: Developing Fish Skin as a Sustainable
Raw Material for the Fashion Industry. This research could not have been completed without support from
the Fulbright UK US scholar award at the Arctic Studies Center at the National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution. Further funding includes the AHRC L Doc London Doctoral Design Centre Award.
Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture, The Japan Foundation Endowment Committee, the
Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the Daiwa Foundation.
We are extremely grateful to Ran Graber the student participant in the workshop; Kornit digital printers;
Nordic Fish Leather tannery; the fish skin craftspeople (Shigerhiro Takano and Keiko Takano) sharing their
ancestral knowledge with us; the museum curators: Nibutani Ainu Museum (Kenji and Maki Sekine); Shigero
Kayano museum (Kimihiro Kayano); Hokkaido University Museum (Masaru Kato); Hokkaido Museum (Kochi
Rie); Shirahoi Ainu museum (Masahiro Nomoto); Kushiro city museum (Rina Shiroishi); Abashiri Hokkaido
museum of Northern peoples (Irumi Sasakura and Yamada Yoshiko); Conservation scientist Nobuyuki Kamba;
Special thanks to John Cloud (Geographer, Research Associate, Anthropology Department, Smithsonian
NMNH) for his contribution of the Japanese Rare Book Collection retrieved from the Library of Congress, DC.
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