How I Discovered Tallow for Skin at a Primitive Skills Gathering

My First Experience with Tallow: A Lesson from an Elder Along the Willamette River

Long before I founded True Image Tallow SkinCare, I had my first introduction to tallow at a Primitive Skills Gathering along the beautiful Willamette River in Oregon.

Around 2010, I was deeply drawn to learning traditional skills and reconnecting with the ways our ancestors worked with the natural world. Primitive Skills Gatherings are a place where knowledge is passed from one generation to the next—where people gather to learn ancient crafts, create with their hands, and discover the wisdom found in natural materials.

At this gathering, I spent my days learning a variety of traditional skills. I learned to weave a sun hat from cattails, spin and weave wool, felt wool into a small rug, create a birch bark bag, and eventually make my own pair of leather shoes using recycled tire soles and leather.

One workshop, however, would stay with me for years.

An elderly craftsman with long white hair and a lifetime of wisdom taught us how to make leather shoes from recycled tire for the soles and leather. After we finished our handmade footwear, he reached into his bag and pulled out a simple mason jar filled with rendered bear fat.

"This is tallow," he said.

He instructed us to massage the tallow into the leather to soften it, condition it, and help it last for years. Then he smiled and added something that caught my attention:

"It's wonderful for your skin, too."

Before we left, he generously shared some of his bear tallow with me.

That evening, I rubbed it onto my arms and legs. I remember being surprised by how mild it smelled and how incredibly soft it made my skin feel. It absorbed beautifully, leaving my skin nourished without feeling greasy.

Later, we went swimming in the Willamette River. As I climbed out of the water, I remember thinking how remarkable it was that my skin still felt soft and protected. Equally meaningful to me was knowing that what I had applied came entirely from nature—it wasn't leaving behind synthetic chemicals or ingredients that could contaminate the river.

That simple mason jar changed the way I thought about skincare.

At the time, I had no idea that years later I would be handcrafting North Dakota bison tallow skincare. I simply knew I had experienced something that felt timeless—a traditional skin emollient that had served people long before modern lotions filled store shelves.

Looking back, that encounter was the beginning of a journey that would eventually lead me to create True Image Tallow SkinCare. Sometimes the smallest moments become the seeds of something much bigger.

And it all began with a humble mason jar of tallow, a wise elder, and a lesson I'll never forget.