First, we responsibly catch fish. (Or our friends do).
The fish skin is then cut, cured, and designed into fish skin leather.
Finally, we do what we’ve always done - make jewelry.
Each unique piece of sustainable fashion comes on a card stock with the species of fish and responsible contributing fisherfolk listed.
Our first experimentation with fish skin leather started with salmon skin during the summer of 2017. In 2018, our first round of fish skin jewelry was produced.
The fish skins caught on a commercial salmon troller (hook and line), a by-product that typically goes to waste, were now being used to make something beautiful.
Further experimentation began upon returning to Hawaii and discovering that just about any fish could be processed in the same way. Back on the homestead, our retired dad and our cousin kept the skins from fish they caught while lake fishing. Thus the element of home was added, truly creating a family business.
The fish skins are processed with an environmentally safe vegetable tanning process.
Each piece of jewelry is original, handmade, and odorless.
No two pieces of jewelry or accessories are ever alike.
No fish is caught for the sole purpose of making fish leather.
You’ll know where the fish that contributed the skin for your jewelry was caught, by whom, and how.
Founder Story Sisters, Krystal and Kellie, grew up fishing with their dad on the lakes in Oklahoma and making jewelry with mom at home. Today, they live a somewhat nomadic lifestyle—summers in Alaska, winters in Hawaii, and traveling in between.
Over the years, these women have worked in multiple settings together and often discussions of starting a business were had. However, the love of travel and exploration always took precedence.
Upon discovering a passion that would allow them to be mobile, work, and travel, Salty Sisters Designs took a sort of natural progression of what Krystal and Kellie love to do together, fish and create.
It is this passion that has led the Salty Sisters to put their energies into creating unique, sustainable jewelry made from responsibly sourced fish skin leather.
Like moms do, this one keeps the engines oiled and the hooks baited. Behind the scenes, at her home studio in Oklahoma, she helps with production, creating each Salty Sisters Designs piece by hand with love. She’s also the backbone of our online store and shipping departments.
During her summers in Alaska, cousin Susan fishes on a commercial power troller. On her off hours she contributes by fishing and skinning her catches to add to the Salty Sisters Designs line. Her winters are spent at her homestead in Oklahoma where she turns these sustainably sourced fish into one of a kind pieces of art. In her home office she manages our bookkeeping and wholesale accounts.
