Our Story

Close to the skin is a woman- owned, Vermont tannery, dedicated to creating handmade goods for the home and body that are healthy and sustainable. We believe in keeping craft close to the earth and close to the body. Alongside our handmade sheepskins, we offer classes and workshops to share these sustainable tanning practices with others. Founded by Coleen - Close to the Skin is rooted in her deep respect for wild places and living a wild life.

About Coleen

Coleen has always had a passion to be connected to her food- to know its story, its place, and its origin. That longing led her to farming, where she began raising her own food and experiencing the nourishment that comes from living close to the land. Yet. It was the woods that truly called to her. Answering that call, she began to hunt, discovering profound gratitude in the practice. Hunting allowed her to be immersed in the forest, to gather deeply nourishing food, and to honor the animals by using every part- including the hide. Once she started to tan, she fell in love with the practice and that is what this company was born from. A love of the wild, a love of the animals that give her life, and a gratitude for the art of tanning.

Production Process

All products are naturally, hand tanned with fat and oil solutions, smoke, and bark. We use 100% natural methods and ingredients to tan our skins, for the wellness of the earth and for the health of our bodies. All of our sheep come from Vermont farmers, and all of the deer are all white tailed deer hunted in Vermont. Special thanks to MKVT and Maplemont farm for providing hides for the 2026 season, and to Mary Lake for her expert skinning work.

Each skin is tanned entirely by hand. The only ingredients added are bark, citric acid, and salt. We work outside with the sun, wind, heat, and our bodies. The result being slow, beautiful, deeply handmade furs- good for the earth and good for us. This is real fur, naturally tanned.

About Sheepskins (Naturally tanned, not synthetic)

Naturally tanned leather is made of ingredients found in the local ecosystem, and is safe for the producer to handle while giving back compost to the environment.

Commercial leather is not naturally tanned. It is usually made with chromium, a toxic material from the mining industry. These hides are often called ‘chrome tanned’. ‘Veg tanned’, while sounding natural, are chrome tanned hides that are mixed with other substances, the word veg just means that there is some vegetable matter in the production of the hide. Commercial leather is often even in color, and width. This is because the layers of skins are stripped and replaced with formaldehyde’s and plastics to acquire that nice even, commercially appealing look.

Caring for Your Sheepskins & Furs

To preserve your hides and keep them as soft as you can, we recommend hand washing your hides. With sheepskins you can vacuum, brush, or pick dirt and debris out. Spot cleaning works just well too. Please avoid putting hides into washing machines or submerging them into water. If you’d like to fluff up your wool. Spray with a solution of 1/4 part vinegar, to 3/4 parts water, brush the wool, and throw into the dryer on no heat to allow the debris to fall out.

Animal Efficacy

In every place we live, our relationship with animals and food takes on a unique form. Here in northern Vermont, much of the nourishment in this land comes from the care and devotion of local farmers and hunters- people who raise and harvest animals with deep respect, who protect and conserve wild places, and who live in rhythm with the land.

At Close to the Ckin, we believe in using the resources that surround us rather than letting them go to waste. We value this way of life- one that honors food, honors the animals that sustain us, and cherishes the gift of living and eating so locally.

Our work is part of that cycle of reverence. We seek to honor the whole animal, transforming a small fraction of what remains- the hide- into something of lasting beauty; pieces that are healthy for our bodies, gentle for our homes, and deeply connected to the story of place.