These hand-tanned fleeces are from our Tunis and occasionally Tunis/Hog Island cross sheep, born and raised here on our small farm in Tennessee. We love the Tunis for many reasons, including their soft yet sturdy wool. These fleeces are hand-processed start to finish - we retrieve them from the meat processor and then scrape, stretch, pickle, and break it, and sand it soft and smooth entirely by hand.
We use a sulfuric acid and saltwater bath (technically this is “tawing“ rather than tanning) so there is no chromium or any other metals used in the process. We wash these as well as we can, but they are not scoured (de-greased) - the natural waxy lanolin is still on the wool, so it is actually very water-repellant. These make wonderful changing pads for infants - any escaping pee can be wiped right off and it’s like it was never there (I used one for all 3 of our boys and would never use anything else!).
The full Tunis hides tend to have dense wool with well-crimped blunt-tipped locks - the yearlings may have more wispy-tipped distinct locks since they've never been shorn, while the 2-year-old and up fleeces tend to be more blunt and form a mat. The wool is not "matted", it is just dense and sort of homogenized, a thick pad of wooliness rather than individual shaggy locks. We mostly process “lambs” - legally, under 1 year old, and since we start lambing in January to March all the way through June, and start processing anywhere from October to January, they are usually 8-11 months old. And just to be clear, “lamb” does NOT mean a cute little adorable *lamb*, these are 100-150 pound boys (almost exclusively, we usually keep the girls), you couldn’t tell them apart from an adult in the field.
There are, of course, occasional scrapes and nicks in the leather side from the butchering process that we can’t eliminate in the finishing process - or sadly, sometimes holes and even tears. We sew these up and tan them anyway - the animal has already made the ultimate sacrifice, and the fleece is warm and wooly even if there’s a hole or a tear! We would much rather put all the work into these (actually a bit more with the sewing) and salvage a perfectly functional product at a discount, than compost the whole thing 😪. The photos will show any holes, cuts or tears, and the price will reflect a slight discount accordingly. We use a pumice stone to hand-sand the skin side to a soft suede finish.
The sizes and fiber length will vary hide to hide (specified below) - we measure at the “waist” not the widest part of the bottom “feet”, and also at the armpits, and give both the max and min width. So for example, 36" is top to bottom, 17" is the narrow point at the armpits, and 22" is the bulge in the middle at the waist. The closer those second two numbers, the "leaner" the outline, and the farther apart, the more "reverse hourglass" the shape is.
We also occasionally have smaller rugs, cut out of damaged hides to salvage what we can. These also make amazing changing pads, as well as bath mats, armchair/desk chair foot rugs, etc. These are usually rectangular but occasionally round or oval.
Current sheepskins available:
#1 - 33" x 16"/24". 3-3.5" staple, no holes. This is a little more symmetrical top-to-bottom than usual - less of the flared thighs at the bottom - as there was a little processor damage that we had to trim off (see photos). This is a very dense fleece!
2 - 32" x 17"/27". 2.5-3" staple length. 2 holes 1-1.5” across, very top right shoulder and lower left flank (from leather side, see photos). More “shaggy” indicating a likely lamb fleece.
#3 - 35" x 17"/25.5". 2" staple, no holes. This is shorter than most lamb fleeces so likely a 2 year old but still really nice! Fun fact, she’s called a hogget when she’s older than 1 but not yet 2, equal to a heifer in cows - not a lamb/calf, but hasn’t had a baby yet. If it’s a 1-2 year old male, it’s called a “how did we not catch that?!” 😂
#4 - 36” x 19”/27”. 2-2.5” staple, 2 holes on the bottom edge, 1 tiny the other 2" round, nice white leather side. Really lovely wool, fine tight crimp in defined locks, very soft.
#5 - 36" x 16"/24". 2.5-3" staple, no holes. Soft wool with good lock formation, fine crimp, smooth leather side with no warp or flare.
Rug #1 - 24.5" x 19", 3-4" staple, no holes. Long shaggy distinct locks with tight crimp, very soft.
Rug #2 -
We almost always have several sheepskins nearly ready, so if you're curious if there are more options, or you're looking for something in particular (specific size/shape/texture, one with no edges trimmed, etc) please message me for the most up-to-date options, photos and descriptions.
These hand-tanned fleeces are from our Tunis and occasionally Tunis/Hog Island cross sheep, born and raised here on our small farm in Tennessee. We love the Tunis for many reasons, including their soft yet sturdy wool. These fleeces are hand-processed start to finish - we retrieve them from the meat processor and then scrape, stretch, pickle, and break it, and sand it soft and smooth entirely by hand.
We use a sulfuric acid and saltwater bath (technically this is “tawing“ rather than tanning) so there is no chromium or any other metals used in the process. We wash these as well as we can, but they are not scoured (de-greased) - the natural waxy lanolin is still on the wool, so it is actually very water-repellant. These make wonderful changing pads for infants - any escaping pee can be wiped right off and it’s like it was never there (I used one for all 3 of our boys and would never use anything else!).
The full Tunis hides tend to have dense wool with well-crimped blunt-tipped locks - the yearlings may have more wispy-tipped distinct locks since they've never been shorn, while the 2-year-old and up fleeces tend to be more blunt and form a mat. The wool is not "matted", it is just dense and sort of homogenized, a thick pad of wooliness rather than individual shaggy locks. We mostly process “lambs” - legally, under 1 year old, and since we start lambing in January to March all the way through June, and start processing anywhere from October to January, they are usually 8-11 months old. And just to be clear, “lamb” does NOT mean a cute little adorable *lamb*, these are 100-150 pound boys (almost exclusively, we usually keep the girls), you couldn’t tell them apart from an adult in the field.
There are, of course, occasional scrapes and nicks in the leather side from the butchering process that we can’t eliminate in the finishing process - or sadly, sometimes holes and even tears. We sew these up and tan them anyway - the animal has already made the ultimate sacrifice, and the fleece is warm and wooly even if there’s a hole or a tear! We would much rather put all the work into these (actually a bit more with the sewing) and salvage a perfectly functional product at a discount, than compost the whole thing 😪. The photos will show any holes, cuts or tears, and the price will reflect a slight discount accordingly. We use a pumice stone to hand-sand the skin side to a soft suede finish.
The sizes and fiber length will vary hide to hide (specified below) - we measure at the “waist” not the widest part of the bottom “feet”, and also at the armpits, and give both the max and min width. So for example, 36" is top to bottom, 17" is the narrow point at the armpits, and 22" is the bulge in the middle at the waist. The closer those second two numbers, the "leaner" the outline, and the farther apart, the more "reverse hourglass" the shape is.
We also occasionally have smaller rugs, cut out of damaged hides to salvage what we can. These also make amazing changing pads, as well as bath mats, armchair/desk chair foot rugs, etc. These are usually rectangular but occasionally round or oval.
Current sheepskins available:
#1 - 33" x 16"/24". 3-3.5" staple, no holes. This is a little more symmetrical top-to-bottom than usual - less of the flared thighs at the bottom - as there was a little processor damage that we had to trim off (see photos). This is a very dense fleece!
2 - 32" x 17"/27". 2.5-3" staple length. 2 holes 1-1.5” across, very top right shoulder and lower left flank (from leather side, see photos). More “shaggy” indicating a likely lamb fleece.
#3 - 35" x 17"/25.5". 2" staple, no holes. This is shorter than most lamb fleeces so likely a 2 year old but still really nice! Fun fact, she’s called a hogget when she’s older than 1 but not yet 2, equal to a heifer in cows - not a lamb/calf, but hasn’t had a baby yet. If it’s a 1-2 year old male, it’s called a “how did we not catch that?!” 😂
#4 - 36” x 19”/27”. 2-2.5” staple, 2 holes on the bottom edge, 1 tiny the other 2" round, nice white leather side. Really lovely wool, fine tight crimp in defined locks, very soft.
#5 - 36" x 16"/24". 2.5-3" staple, no holes. Soft wool with good lock formation, fine crimp, smooth leather side with no warp or flare.
Rug #1 - 24.5" x 19", 3-4" staple, no holes. Long shaggy distinct locks with tight crimp, very soft.
Rug #2 -
We almost always have several sheepskins nearly ready, so if you're curious if there are more options, or you're looking for something in particular (specific size/shape/texture, one with no edges trimmed, etc) please message me for the most up-to-date options, photos and descriptions.
