Primitive Trips
Both of us have followed our desires to be self sustaining from the earth and from an urge to be in mountains and wild places. To live as close as possible to the earth - having made, foraged, tanned, woven and crafted everything we had with us from raw materials. These longings led us to some journeys into the wilds of various lands.
With Lynx Vilden and 7 others we walked and lived in the Cascade mountains for a month, only with ‘primitive’ gear - we had tanned our clothes, foraged our food, sewed our shoes, woven pack baskets and hand made everything we carried.
A year later we spent a month in the forest and lakes of Sweden. Fishing, foraging and living round a hearth. And a couple of years later, we ventured with a 8 adults and 3 children into the French Pyrenees.
This is the reason we started tanning. For us, tanning isn’t just a nice traditional craft, it is a way to clothe ourselves sustainably, a way to walk quietly through the forest, to blend in, a way to connect with an ancient craft that has been practiced for tens of thousands of years.
When living in the wilderness and close to the earth it is so clear just how important animals are - for food, tools, and warmth - all our clothing came from skins. It is clear how important they have been, alongside humans for our whole evolution.
It isn’t easy in a few paragraphs to convey the full depth of these experiences. They have formed us, and deeply informed our work.
