Trading on Etsy

For the last two or three days I worked on making the round basket shown here as an item to "trade" on Etsy. "Pahanahides" asked me to trade a tray basket of this size with Tamarack bark as a design element on its sides. In exchange I asked for some of her deer hide lacing. The basket is now on its way to Georgia, and deer hide lacing is on its way from Georgia to Ottawa.




In an Etsy trade, items of equal value including shipping costs are exchanged. No actual money flows. I am very satisfied ith my trade, and I anticipate that Pahanahides will be satisfied too.

This is one of her products, beautifully made. As you will see in her bio that follows, she starts with the raw hides and goes on from there.





This is an example of the lacing I will receive. I will use it as a decorative feature much like I use dyed flat cane.








Here is another of the exquisite work she does.

PahanaHides' Profile

Bio

This is me!

I am a very married southern girl. My people on my dad's side are Seminole Indian.

The hides I get are either from farms that raise their own meat for many families. Or from local hunters trying to feed their families. I do NOT buy from hunting lodges. I have never shot anything in my life. And only agree with shooting an animal IF you are going to eat it. NONE of my hides were shot for sport!!!

When I get the hides we flesh them useing beams that he made for each of us and hand tools. No electrical tools are used in the proccess. My hides are NOT commerical. They are lovingly hand done. What we don't use right then we freeze. I have four freezers (that right, four) that I use for hides. None of my hides ever see any chemicals at all. They are completely natural, organic and green!!
We then frame up the hide and dry scrape it. Afterwards we pumice it to make sure we did not miss anything. Then comes the braining of the hide. Each hide has 4 to 6 brainings. They are then worked with a cable for about 4 hours, non stop till they are dry. Then pumiced to remove any rough spots that we might have missed over the last 8 hours and fluffed. At last we sew up the hide and smoke it for different colours and durability. The entire process is about 10 hours till you have a lovely one of a kind hide in hand.

The time and energy put into our hides shows. We offer a variety of sizes and colours. If you don't see what you want or need, just feel free to contact us. Let us know what you are useing it for, how large you need it, when you need it, and the colour you need and we will find just the hide for you.

It was nice to meet you. Hope to speak with you again soon!

By the by I'm always looking for camping/survival items. So if you would like to trade lets talk.

To see more of her work visit Etsy and under sellers type in Pahanahides. Enjoy.