Introduction to Rawhide Art

Series Summary

For centuries, mankind has used rawhide for various needs including shelter, communication, and art. Though it was once a necessity to use rawhide in ancient art, it is now more of an artistic genre with new techniques that give rise to unique works of art. Working with rawhide is a rewarding, challenging, sometimes tiring endeavor that produces original pieces of art that can be appreciated up close or at a distance. If you would like to gain some insight into the realm of rawhide art, and get some artistic design inspiration, learn from our expert rawhide artist.

In this free online video series, learn about rawhide art from artist Candace Copeland as she presents her astounding and unique rawhide art in her gallery. Learn about what is involved in creating art using rawhide, how to make a rawhide mold of a sculpture. See examples of Candace's rawhide artwork such as buffaloes, goddesses, angels, and busts of American Indian Chiefs.

Video Transcript

"On behalf of expertvillage.com my name is Candice Copeland. Welcome, I'm going to be showing you some interesting artwork today that you may have never seen before. There is only one other person I know of in the country that is doing this work and I don't even know if she is still doing it. At any rate it's working with rawhide. Rawhide is the stage of leather before it is tanned. This happens to be a nice example so you can get an idea this is a deer hide. It was very crisp I soaked it in water last night so the beginning stage of anything that you work with rawhide it has to get wet so that it can get all soft and crunchy like this. Then for it to get the detail it has to be stretched , it has to be worked over a rope until it just breaks down and breaks down and gets even softer than this. But this will give you an idea of what it is that takes this rawhide and then brings out these incredible creations. I got started with it due to making rattles. We stated making rattles. Which what you do with this rawhide is you cut out your pattern and you start stitching it and you put a balloon inside , you blow up the balloon , it puffs out the piece and it makes your rattle head. However, after I finished doing rattles I thought one day I said hmmm vessels this would be really neat. So I created what I call spirit keepers and these are little vessels you can put your wishes and dreams in and keep them on your sacred place. Actually a mortuary wanted to get them and use them for urns which is an interesting idea ashes going into these wonderful little hide vessels so they can be used for lots of things. But that?s what got me started working with this medium and the more I worked with it I started just looking around at things and I thought I wonder why if I could work with it with balloons why couldn't I work with it over molds."