So many pieces of Inuit art—from wearables like jewellery, clothing and accessories to installation pieces—feature sealskin. In celebration of National Sealskin Products Day, the IAQ digs into the incredibly detailed and complex way sealskin is processed so we can all better understand and appreciate the work that goes into preparing this beautiful, warm, waterproof material. 

Our guide through this process is Micheline Kilabuk-Cote, an Iqaluit, NU-based sewist who works with sealskin from harvest to wearable accessory. After taking a kamiik-making course at the friendship centre in Iqaluit and realizing the sealskin she was using was not the best quality, she decided to learn how to process sealskin herself. “Being able to harvest a seal with my family, nourish the community, nourish family, have that skin, process it myself…and then be able to create warm clothing for my family is just so special,” Kilabuk-Cote says. [1] She began her work with sealskin by taking the seal her partner had harvested and bringing it to the friendship centre to learn from instructors. Much of sealskin processing is a balancing act, which you will see in the steps below, and how long it takes depends on the time of year. Generally, from harvesting the seal to having sealskin ready to sew, it takes about a week in the summer but months in the winter. Kilabuk-Cote is now experienced in the practice, making hats, mittens and has even completed a pair of sealskin pants for her partner. 

Here, she takes us through her process for preparing sealskin for sewing. 

Sealskin and leather mittens created by Micheline Kilabuk-Cote ALL PHOTOS COURTESY MICHELINE KILABUK-COTE

Step 1: Harvest the seal and rinse the blood and oil from the skin.  

Step 2: It’s time to majjak, the process of cleansing the skin and removing the membrane of flesh with an ulu. This takes practice and skill. “It’s very rewarding,” Kilabuk-Cote says. “The first time I did it, it took me four hours.” 

Step 3: Using a saliguut, a tool that features a piece of metal with a wooden handle, scrape as much of the oil and blood off of the fur-side of the sealskin as possible. Once this is done, it’s time to wash the sealskin. Kilabuk-Cote often uses a mix of dish soap and powdered laundry detergent in warm water to do this. 

Step 4: Once the skin has been rinsed and as much water as possible is squeezed out, it’s time to dry the fur-side of the skin. You can hang it or lay it flat on an old towel or cardboard. 

Step 5: Prepare the skins for another round of drying, this time stretched on a wooden frame called innirvik. To do this, Kilabuk-Cote uses a small ulu to trim imperfections and make holes to tie the skin to the innirvik, a process called avasik. This step is meant to prepare the material to be dried, and it’s important to create holes that are equally distanced, using the ulu as a guide, so that there’s equal tension and the skin dries evenly. Once the holes are created, the skin is ready to be mounted on the frame. 

Washed sealskin drying and stretching in the innirvik.
Step 6: Mount the skin in the innirvik. Kilabuk-Cote starts at the top of the skin, weaving rope into the holes and tying them around the frame. She does this all around the skin and makes sure it’s even.

Step 7: Set the mounted skin outside to dry. It’s important that the skin is not placed in direct sunlight in the warmer months—generally from April to October—because the sun can burn the skin and dry it out too much, causing the skin to break. In the colder months, direct sunlight is fine and even helpful, as sunlight is a natural cleaner. January to March is the ideal time to put out skin to be naturally bleached by the sun. The length of time the skin takes to dry depends on the time of year. In the colder months, it can take weeks or months, but in the warmer months, it could only take a few days.

Step 8: Scrape again. Once the skin is dry, remove it from the frame and scrape the flesh side clean of oils and residues. This process is called qattaattik. It’s important to scrape in the direction of the fur to keep the skin neat and visually appealing. 

Step 9: Stomp the skin to soften it. The term for this is tukiq, and it involves tying the sealskin into a ball and walking on it until it’s very soft. When the skin is flexible and supple, it is ready for a second wash. If you’re making clothing, you want it to be slightly softer so that it’s easy to move in, but if you’re making kamiit the skin can be a bit tougher. 

Preparing the sealskin for sewing. 
Step 10: Another wash to remove excess oils that have come out of the skin. For this step, Kilabuk-Cote advises not to completely soak the skin in water. She uses a brush with a bowl of water and soap to wash the skin, then rinses it and lays the skin flat or hangs it to try. It shouldn’t be too dry—much of sealskin processing is a balancing act. 

Step 11: It’s time for a second round of stretching and shaping, laying the skin as flat as possible or hanging it on a rope, as Kilabuk-Cote often does. After the skin has been stretched, it is ready for sewing. 

Kilabuk-Cote's partner modelling the sealskin pants she made for him.

For Kilabuk-Cote, the biggest challenges she finds in processing sealskin are the time commitment and access to learning from different seamstresses. “It is a lot of time and dedication to continue practicing [sealskin processing] with a full-time job. But it’s what also keeps me grounded.”