Several years ago I asked my good friends Heimo and Edna Korth, who trap for Marten Fur on the Southeastern slopes of the Brooks Range in far Northern Alaska, so keep a look out for a nice land otter to make into an otter bag. Heimo says that Edna told him where to put the trap and he caught one of the largest river otters I've ever seen! The first group of pictures show the otter as I received it. Heimo had generously skinned out and preserved the claws. The two skins that Heimo brought me are shown by an "Alaskan Yardstick" which, if you look closely is 48 inches long! The larger skin is the one I selected for my bag.
I met Djuana Tucker, an expert traditional quill artist, at the CLA Show August of 2018. She was willing to take on this project of creating a beautiful work of art with quill decoration of this otter skin. The finished Quillwork Bag is shown in detail in the following photos.
Finally, here is a photo of the author beaming with joy
holding his new found treasure!
