{"id":4168,"date":"2020-06-27T13:17:40","date_gmt":"2020-06-27T12:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/?p=4168"},"modified":"2020-06-27T13:17:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T12:17:42","slug":"making-fish-leather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/making-fish-leather\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Fish Leather"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As far as hobbies go, most of us tend to go for the usual painting<\/a> or exercising. Claire, an art conservator, chose to learn how to make fish leather during lockdown. Fascinating, isn’t it? Read all about it below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During this lockdown, continuous professional development has played a big role. As an art conservator, I’ve always been curious about arts in general and crafts in particular. Art conservators tend to be crafty people. So, when I came across a video on YouTube about making parchment from fish skin<\/a> by Peter Verheyen, I just couldn’t resist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After watching videos and reading articles from Peter’s website<\/a> and other sources for a whole evening, I thought it’d be really interesting to give it a go. It looked fairly simple, as I only needed a few ingredients I could find easily, and it could make me to stay away from my computer for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to admit that although it seemed cool, it also looked slightly gross. But, that is always a great combination! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another advantage is helping me to maintain manual dexterity, which is an essential quality an art conservator should possess and hone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How I did it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The only fish skin I had in the fridge was either salmon or mackerel. Apparently, the smelliest fish to do this is mackerel, because it’s very oily and that’s where the smell typically comes from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I started to skin<\/strong> a very slipery salmon fillet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Making<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After that, I massaged the skin with a lot of washing up liquid<\/strong> for a few minutes. The best soap to use for this is the most basic one without any scent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n