Antonia Gillet wanted to get a fish leather wallet to remind him of their annual fishing trips to the wilds of Scotland - but she couldn’t find anywhere in the UK making them.
So the Biology graduate, aged 28, took matters into her own hands, learning the rare skill of fish skin tanning and sewing a wallet just in time for the big day.
Two years later and she runs Felsie, a business which repurposes waste salmon skins into non-odorous wallets, card holders and more.
She gives 50% of its profits to river conservation charities and has just won a Young Innovators Award from Innovate UK to expand the business out of her back room.
“Dad has always been into fishing and it’s always been something we did together, so a fish leather wallet was the perfect gift for his 60th,” Antonia explained.
“Before the pandemic hit I was working for a small business in Zambia which made jewellery out of snares set by poachers.
“Working there taught me loads about business and conservation - but there was also a feeling there that you could make anything that you wanted happen.”
These days fish tanning is a marginal hobby and Antonia’s first experiment at making the birthday present wasn’t wholly successful: the egg and oil solution she used to tan the skin smelt terrible and attracted thousands of ants.
But undeterred she slowly refined the art. Today she uses a traditional tanning process that uses English willow bark to tan salmon skins that come from Dunkeld Smokehouse in Scotland.
The bark is a byproduct of the cricket bat manufacturing industry and the fish skins would otherwise have been thrown in the bin.
Everything is done by hand, from the tanning of the fish to sewing the products.
Antonia has pledged to donate 50% of profits to two charities that protect UK rivers: the Wye and Usk Foundation and the Missing Salmon Alliance.
“Learning to tan the fish was hard because few people do it these days and fewer people share it,” Antonia said.
“It’s a bit of a skill to get the strength of the willow soup right and every batch is different so it takes a lot of experimentation.
“At the moment I’m doing it all at home in batches of 20 skins, but I’m hoping to scale-up this year, and perhaps even move to new premises.”
That has become easier thanks to funding from Innovate UK, the Government’s Research and Innovation body.
The Young Innovators Award she received came with a £5,000 grant and a stipend so she can work two days a week on the business.
Antonia studied Biology at the University of Bristol, a time she describes as “really enjoyable”.
But after graduating in 2015 she always planned to do something “meaningful”. Her time in Zambia, where she learnt to sew her own dresses from their colourful fabrics, only cemented this.
Tom Ellson, Director of the University of Bristol’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said: “Felsie is bringing a whole new meaning to the word ‘fintech!’
“It is fantastic to see a former student bringing something new and innovative into one market, whilst taking unnecessary waste out of another.
“This is yet another example of the increasing culture at the University for students and graduates to create start-ups that disrupt established markets."