As THE RUDAI is getting more and more conscious and looking to partner with more earth friendly organisations we have been introduced to FEMER - Fish Skin, being pioneered by Marielle Philip.....

Lost in the middle of oyster farming territory, on the harbour of La Teste-de-Buch and off the Arcachon Bay, Marielle Philip is tanning fish skins to turn them into leather. Her workshop is set up inside one of those little wooden cabins right by the water-a few feet away from the food stalls where tourists regularly show up to gorge themselves on oyster platters.

Inside Femer, her small leather-working shop, each object fits the nautical theme: yellow raincoats hanging on a rack, an old machine that fillets fish, a few water colors of boats, and her grandfather's fishing nets. In a corner, two big freezers stock the different fish, whose skins will soon become leather: bass, salmon, soles, trout, turbots, burbots, sturgeons, catfish, rays, mullets... The list is long-if it swims, it ends up on Marielle's workstation.

The art of fashioning leather out of fish skin wasn't invented yesterday. The artisanal craft has been practiced across the ages and across the globe. Marielle grew up at sea, accompanying her grandfather on fishing trips and helping with morning auctions. Marielle start their own leather-working shop, naming it Femer. Together with her mother, they developed an eco-responsible method that allows them to fabricate fish leather through a circular economy. For nearly two years, Marielle put on her chemist hat and concocted various vegetable tannin recipes, eventually arriving at a process that is 100-percent natural, with zero waste.

Tannin is the substance that is added in order to transform the skin into leather, rendering it supple and insoluble, and preventing it from rotting. Currently, industry professionals use mineral salts as tannin, such as chromium salts-chemical products that mix easily with other substances, and thus cut production times way down. Marielle opted for a more natural alternative, out of environmental concerns: "I use local invasive plants, such as crushed mimosa root bark, which is found all over the Aquitaine region," she explains. "I am always working on new vegetable tannin formulas. Choosing this process means that we are looking to remain as natural as possible, and obtain quality  leather," confesses Marielle, careful not to reveal too much of her secret recipes.

Why are we highlighting this to you???? kangaROOS will be utilising this artizanial technique on there upcoming colab with BISSO......

More info to follow......