Artisan tannery wins ‘employment for women’ award in France
17/07/2014
For the two Philip women have set up their own artisanal fishskin tannery in the garage of their home in Arcachon, self-taught, apart from a self-funded fact-finding trip to Finland.
Determined to use local materials and to make their leather as environmentally friendly as possible, they have developed a tanning method based on mimosa bark that they collect locally. They have even developed their own version of a wet-stretching machine.
Although the business, called Fremer, has started off small, the mother-and-daughter team has hopes of opening a small shop in nearby La Teste-de-Buch in the months ahead to sell small leathergoods made with the skins of locally caught salmon, sole, sturgeon and other fish.
For their efforts so far, they have been named as the winners of an award called Grand Trophée Apec. Speaking after the award on French television, Monique Philip said: “What we want is to create jobs for the women in these communities.”
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