On a stretch of Quintana Road in Morro Bay, inside a former crematorium, James Kennard is turning animal skins into something new—and now, he’s inviting others to do the same.
Kennard, who owns California Natural Sheepskins, launched a sheepskin design working group designed to bring people into the process of transforming raw hides into finished goods. The effort builds on his small-scale tanning operation and opens it up as a creative, collaborative space.
“It’s a meeting point to be creative with this resource that exists,” he said.
Kennard’s work highlights a largely invisible gap in the Central Coast’s agricultural system where sheep are regularly processed for meat but their skins are discarded due to the lack of local tanning infrastructure. By collecting, tanning, and now sharing the material locally, he is attempting to create a small, community-based system around something typically treated as waste.
“Leather is pretty mysterious and magical,” Kennard said. “It is an art and a science. And I guess … that’s what’s interesting.”
His path into the work began during the COVID-19 lockdown. He started hunting small game and began grappling with the ethics of meat consumption. If he was going to eat animals, he reasoned, he should understand and use every part of them.
That curiosity quickly expanded into a deeper dive into preserving hides and tanning.
Instead of entering conventional leather production, Kennard sought out smaller-scale and more natural approaches. He trained with a traditional tannery in Oregon and connected with a loose network of micro-tanneries in the United States and the U.K.
Kennard gets his skins from Creston Valley Meat, where sheepskins are abundant and normally discarded.
“There’s like a big gap in the in the food system where there’s a lot of waste of the animal skins, so, there were skins available,” he said. “There’s enough sheepskins, like, more than enough for me to try to keep up with, in the sheepskin harvest.”
Kennard has collected skins directly from the facility for four years now. Often he’ll get a call and collect the skins that day and bring them back to Morro Bay for immediate processing. Fresh skins must be cooled and processed quickly to prevent slippage, he explained.
“It’s kind of like a race against time straight away,” he said.
Once back at his Morro Bay workshop, the work becomes immediate and intensive.
“I was sort of literally staying up all night fleshing sheepskins, which is very physically challenging and not sustainable long term.”
Over time, he refined his process, developing faster methods while learning to navigate the unpredictability of natural materials.
“There are all these kind of subtleties,” Kennard said, “that kind of make or break the sheepskins at the end of the day.”
No two hides behave the same way, which has shaped both his workflow and his product line: “You never know what you’re going to get.”
Imperfections and irregularities often determine what a skin becomes. Instead of discarding flawed material, Kennard repurposes it into smaller goods.
“If there’s a big flay … then like, well, it’s not really going to work as a rug,” he said. “So I’ll cut it up and turn into something else.
Through California Natural Sheepskins, Kennard creates hats, vests, bags, and custom pieces.
“If you can imagine it, I’ll try,” he said.
Now, through the newly launched working group, Kennard is shifting from individual production toward shared making. The sessions invite participants to learn how to work with sheepskin and experiment with design using locally sourced material.
“There’s this kind of wonderful creative opportunity to … take the sheepskins from … the hillsides around us,” he said. “Then … turn them into things that you know should last for a lifetime.”
The sheepskin working group meets every Tuesday in April from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Benedict Center in Morro Bay located at 1401 Quintana Road. Each session costs $25 and includes sheepskin material for a coin purse-size creation; there’s a sliding scale for bigger projects.
You can find California Natural Sheepskins every Saturday at the Morro Bay farmers market, on Etsy, and on Instagram @california_natural_sheepskins.
Fast fact
• The Cambria Community Services District, in partnership with local emergency response agencies and volunteers, will host an Emergency Preparedness Action Day on Saturday, April 18, at the Cambria Veterans Memorial Hall, 1000 Main St., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is designed to move residents from awareness to action on wildfire, evacuation, and coastal hazard preparedness. Attendees will receive guidance on evacuation planning, household readiness, and CPR and first aid training. Complimentary “go-bag” kits will be distributed while supplies last. Emergency management professional Mike Ketaily, a 30-year veteran of the Los Angeles City Fire Department, will speak about practical steps residents can take to prepare before disasters strike. Visit cambriacsd.org for more information. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Chloë Hodge at chodge@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in April 16-23, 2026.