Rabbit skin blanket

[mfalconer]

Just finished weaving a rabbit skin blanket. Probably 50 (or so) American Chinchilla skins from mostly juniors. Anyway, I am just very excited about it and had to show it off. I also attached some homemade walnut wood buttons to two of the corners so it can be worn as a robe. I could stare at it for hours... The picture doesn't do it justice. There is a lot of character to it...

 

[alforddm]

That is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[jeannie]

Wow ~ it's beautiful!!

 

[Zass]

Looks wonderful! I bet it's super soft.

 

[Rabbitdog]

Spectacular! Did you tan them yourself???

 

[mfalconer]

yes - all home grown and home tanned using diluted acid-salt solution. Can't wait for next years blanket!

 

[caroline]

I would loveto read a tutorial of how you "weave" rabbit skins.

 

[Rabbitdog]

I would loveto read a tutorial of how you "weave" rabbit skins.

Ditto!

 

[Miss M]

Wow, that's wonderful! I'd love to do this someday! Did you take progress pictures?

 

[Preitler]

That looks great, and warm

That's made of twisted stripes of folded fur, woven around strings on a frame, right?

 

[mfalconer]

i didn't take any progress pics. Sorry.. But see http://www.primitiveways.com/rabbit_skin_blanket.html
This is essentially how I made this blanket.
There is very little info online regarding making these blankets. There are also a few different methods of constructing the blanket (weaving vs. looping).
It is very time consuming, but relaxing. A good time to do this is in a garage or basement. There is a lot of shed fur to clean up from cutting and twisting the skins. But the blanket doesn't seem to shed very much at all. I try to harvest the juniors around 10-11 weeks. After that they molt and the skins shed quite a bit. Obviously prime pelts would make a really nice blanket, but I think its worth using the juniors for something like this.

 

[caroline]

thanks for the link. I am VERY excited to try this with my rabbit skins. I couldn't figure out how I was going to make something
since the only way I could imagine was having to get an industrial sewing machine and now I can see the possibility of doing it
in a simple [primitive] way. HOW exciting is that!?!

 

[GBov]

That is really really pretty!!!

How does one do it with a raw hide?

And is the cord spun inside the hide strip or is it the weft?

 

[JessiL]

So you actually tanned the hides instead of just drying them?

Do please write up a more detailed post about the process. I look at the Primitive Ways website about that process regularly, but have been too chicken to try it. And I think a lot of my really sub-prime junior pelts would be best used for a blanket instead of tanned.

 

[GBov]

I have looked and looked but no joy on how to do it with dried hides. As I have about 50 POUNDS of dried hides right now, it would be nice to find a way to use them like that.

 

[alforddm]

I don't see how you could do something like this with just dried hides. The only way they would be flexible enough for the twisting is if they were wet and if they were wet they would dry really stiff or maybe not dry good at all and get moldy or start to rot. You may could do something like Zass did a while back when when she broke a raw hide, but if I'm going to all the trouble of breaking a hide, I'd just as soon have it tanned.

 

[GBov]

That is what I thought too. Although fryer hides dry really flexible, I just cant see them working for this.

I wonder how it would work if instead of twisting one used leather glue and painted the strip before folding it over?