Joe Manthei

After a life-changing vacation to Iceland in 2011 – my wife and I founded Fiskur Leather. A family-owned small business based out of our home. My wife’s sewing skills immediately were valuable in making fish leather bags, pouches, small wallets as well as fashion accessories. I started with bookmarks. Having no leatherworking experience previously – I thought I could cut the fish leather into 1” x 7” shapes. From that small beginning I moved onto Barn Art with geometric patterns using the various colors and species. I still remember my first thrill at making a bifold wallet. Later I added kangaroo to my wallets. Over the years with lots of help from YouTube I started making bags and purses and briefcases. I’ve made two complete chess sets with chessboard and storage box. Lately I’ve started making sneakers with Italian leather and fish leather. I love working with Italian leather. In 2019 I took Amtrak to Vancouver and studied how to tan fishskin under Lotta Rahme from Sweden. She is the world’s authority on tanning fishskin. Since then I have tanned hundreds of skins and have been working with GPGS.org a non-profit in Chicago that works to support and promote Great Lakes fish. My tanned fish leather from local sources are mainly walleye, lake trout, burbot and bass. I use nontoxic tannins (ex: oak gallnut, willow, tara) as well as natural dyes (indigo, marigold, goldenrod, hibiscus, etc). I also was the first student to take an online class in tanning fish using willow bark and beets from June Pardue a world renowned Indigenous Alaskan artist. As a leatherworker I use handstitching on 95% of my products. I do use my wife’s sewing machine when attaching fish leather to cowhide. My Fiskuroo wallets (fish + kangaroo) wear like iron as they are the world’s top two most durable leathers. Our USFWS import license has allowed us to import fish leather from Iceland, Germany, Norway, Portugal, and France. We are a small business with a global reach. Over the last 2 years we have taught fishskin tanning to three separate Native American tribes which is humbling and wonderful.