Describing Water Tribe clothes, furniture, etc, and feel like you just keep saying "fur" and "skin" over and over and over again? Wanna be more descriptive but you just don't know what kind of skins look and feel what kind of ways? Fear Not! I, an Actual Real Life Eskimo™ (King Island Inupiaq for those who don't know), have cultural knowledge that may help!
As ever, this is a collection of helpful tips to use as you please. I'm not in the business of telling anyone what to write or not write. I'd just like to share what I know and hope this helps anyone who might be annoyed by a lack of knowledge that can take some creative googling and persistant note-taking to figure out. Plus given the atlaverse's fun fantasy animals, you can switch it up and mix the following animals with each other or with completely different ones. Go bananas.
Please also note this is not a comprehensive list. That would make up an entire thesis and require scouring old, racist records from outsiders and talking to every living elder in the north.
As a general rule, furs tend to be thicker and warmer in the winter because thats how animals evolved to survive the intense cold weather. The younger the animal, the softer the fur tends to be, but this is not always desired and it's preferred in most cases to avoid killing animals too young to survive on their own and their mothers.
Coarse and glossy guard hairs
Not much range in color, mostly russet brown
Hollow hairs that insulate very well
Used to make clothes warm enough to "sleep outside in fifty below [-50°F]"
Traditional Inupiaq mattress was just two layers of caribou skin
Skin and fur colored in a pattern, could cut light and dark skin from the same caribou
Dark in the summer and white with a black tip at the end of the tail in the winter
Silky guard hairs with fluffy undercoat
Makes a good ruff for a parka hood
Skin traditionally used for women's shorts
Fairly manageable skin, not too stiff or prone to tearing.
Many types of foxes available so lots of color variation, from white to almost black, to a coppery color typical of red foxes
Color depends on season when harvested
Comfortable, but can easily wear
Bristly guard hairs, no soft undercoat
Keeps out wind and rain but not very warm
Yellowed silver with small dark spots
Has a musky smell many find pleasant
Skin can be thin and prone to tearing
Yellowish tan to gray to white
Good for ruffs, cuffs, and hems
Dark brown with lighter patterning
Antler: more plentiful than wood in parts of the arctic, used for handles, beads, buttons for pouches, etc
Baleen: historically referred to as "whalebone," used to make small sleds, boot soles, and baskets. Engravings in pieces of baleen show up white against the black background. This art is called scrimshaw and when on long pieces of baleen, my depict a sequence
Fish skin: not a fur, obviously, but lightweight, flexible, and waterproof. Sometimes processed into thread, which may have otherwise been sinew
Grass: may be woven into baskets or insoles for boots
Gut: cleaned out intestines sewn together with tiny stitches, see through, made into waterproof over layer parkas
Ivory: tusks harvested from walruses, carved into beads, pipes, jewelry, and more. Cribbage boards have been fairly popular uses of ivory since contact. Ivory is popularly used for scrimshaw as well as baleen, and lines engraved in ivory are inked black for visual contrast.
Qiviut: musk-ox fiber, very fine, can be processed and spun like wool but is seven times denser. Many articles knit and crocheted of qiviut are made with a lacey pattern to prevent the wearer from overheating. To my knowledge, it was only used this way in Alaska as opposed to using the skins of hunted musk-oxen after the animals were reintroduced long after going extinct.
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