Inspiration from the things you find while travelling

Strap attached

I’ve written before about my love of badgers and also making my own bushcraft kit which I use extensively when I’m out delivering courses on on expeditions but I have to admit I’ve never had a chance to mix the two passions. I spend a good amount of time travelling between our various sites which gives me the sad opportunity to see lots of wildlife that has fallen victim to being hit by vehicles. I’ve even on occasions been phoned by friends to come and bring a humane end to an animals life when it has been catastrophically wounded. I say this to simply set the scene that I do not take any pleasure from loss of life but I do have a strong sense of making the full use of what I find. A colleague on the team wrote far more eloquently about this recently. Resources are collected for furthering tracking knowledge, close up studies of anatomy can take place, bones collected for projects and of course skins can be processed into wonderful materials.

It was this thought process that got me thinking about what I could do with a particularly well preserved badger and set about honouring it the best way I could… by using everything, instead of just driving by and leaving it to rot. The project took ages to come to me as when you truly invest time in making fur on, leather or buckskin it’s always hard to take scissors to it and commit, so pondering is my default for months. So when I finally had an idea that meant leaving the fur complete with no cutting I was sold as it means I can change my mind in the future.

The inspiration, an old messenger bag
The inspiration, an old messenger bag

This old messenger bag had been well used by one of my now (very) grown up children when they were at sixth form college more years ago than I care to remember and then I took it on as a foraging bag so it’s seen better days. Rather than repair all the tears and seams coming undone I thought the strap was just what I needed so removed it for reuse.

Taking the strap for reuse
Taking the strap for reuse

The concept was to make this a very quick project with minimal damage to the fur so I worked out how to fold it so that it could create a bag with no cuts just a few lines of stitching. This had to be done while it was inside out to avoid the sewing machine clogging up with fur.

Sewing the hide closed down the two sides
Sewing the hide closed down the two sides
Already kind of a bag
Already kind of a bag
With an awesome closing flap complete with nose
With an awesome closing flap complete with nose

These two initial lines of stitching immediately gave me a bag but more touches of finesse were needed to truly honour the animal and shear effort that it takes to make something this well preserved. So the strap was attached to display the amazing detail of the front feet.

Attaching the strap to the front feet
Attaching the strap to the front feet
Attaching the strap to the front feet
Attaching the strap to the front feet
Strap attached
Strap attached

In effect it was really as simple as that – two lines of stitches and reinforced stitching for the strap attachment points. However, it’s only that easy through significant planning to make sure it all sat in the right place. Even the back feet and tail are on display… but only when the bag is opened up.

A nice quick project and a badger that I can literally have by my side
A nice quick project and a badger that I can literally have by my side
Even the tail and back feet were kept but only appear when you open the bag
Even the tail and back feet were kept but only appear when you open the bag

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