Anne Jouhtinen, a visual artist from Kerava, tans fish skins in the traditional way. In his hands, clothes, accessories and jewelry are created from leather, among other things.
– In my opinion, no part of the fish is useless. I want to give honor to the dead fish, says Jouhtinen.
Jouhtinen from Kerava, for example, makes clothes, jewelry or accessories out of pike logs, for example.
– Actually, the only limit to what the fish will bend to is the imagination. Fish skin is not the only pan glove, because if you touch a hot pan, the skin would be ruined.
Since Thursday, Jouhtinen’s work has been displayed on the walls of Kotka’s aquarium house Maretarium, in the form of photographs.
Cultural heritage
Anne Jouhtinen tans the hides in the old ways of traditional tanners. Tanning means treating leather so that it becomes a durable, long-lasting and highly malleable material.
– I am in love with vegetable tanning. I use tree barks with tannic acid for it. When I want really white and beautiful leather, I use animal brains and their fatty acids. The third way is to replace the brain with egg yolk fatty acids.
According to Jouhtinen, you can start with a very small amount of leather. They can be made into, for example, jewelry or bags.
For larger jobs, such as clothing, more hides are needed.
– I used about 6–8 kilos of leather for the wrapped skirt made of mate or salmon.
Jouhtinen gets its material from fish counters, fish shops and individual fishermen.
– Sometimes I also go fishing with my son to get a feel for the fish.
From dancing to fish fry
Anne Jouhtinen has a 30-year career as a professional dancer and choreographer. He says that he has always been strongly interested in Finno-Ugric myths.
– I knew that I would retire from the dance industry at some point. I have always had a deep relationship with nature, I have collected bones and feathers since I was a little girl, this is a continuation of that.
Jouhtinen also teaches fish skin tanning and the making of scales and vertebrae jewelry. According to him, fish skin tanning was already disappearing, but the situation is better now and there are teachers of the skill all over Finland.
– People are interested in naturalness and recycling, I strongly see the future in this. It is wonderful to take a fish from the lake and use it as far as possible.
