What am I missing about skinbark?

[fruteloop23]

It's supposed to be used as leather it seems, but any clothing that needs leather says there aren't enough supplies (when I have a bunch of skinbark).

[Rilinyth]

you need to turn the skinbark into leather and a workstation

[SUwUMaBUwU]

It's a form of leather material. Not actually leather. You can make Skinbark leather clothing which is learnt through the research bench.

[Drikon]

To say it another way; You get Skinbark from the Skinbark plant. Skin"bark" looks like a fat purple loaf of bread. You take skinbark bark to a workbench and after you have done the right research you can select to make "skinbark leather " from the skinbark "bark"... at the workbench. The survivor makes the skinbark "leather" which looks like a role of purple cloth.

[alation13]

It is Vegan leather.

[Rogue]

Veggie leather needs to be first crafted from it at the workshop. Skin bark's only a raw resource for that. There's a steam achievement for that too...

[Bubyanka]

To do anything with the raw material you need to observe the twisted plant.

[OverThere]

In most runs, skinbark is pretty much useless except very briefly in the early game when raw skinbark can be used to make beds. But, by the time you've found, observed and harvested the skinbark, you may already have made beds. If there is nothing else available it is perhaps worth the effort to observe it, otherwise there are higher priorities for observation and research than the twisted plant.

For actual usable leather from skinbark, you need to complete a two day research project when there are many other early research projects competing for urgent attention. After completing that research project, you can then convert raw skinbark into vegan leather via crafting. Vegan leather can be used almost like real leather, except that you need to complete another, entirely separate, research project to be able to make skinbark leather into vegan armour.

If you have access to hides, actual leather is much easier since it dries on a rack without the need for crafting time.

Of course, after the early game, say into the second year, leather itself is no longer important as you generally have better alternatives available. At that point, you look at the screaming priorities in your research pipeline and lament what you could have done instead with those two days spent in research...

[Mantastic]

You can also use it as a purple carpet flooring option.

[Zep Tepi]

You can make veggie leather in the workbench as soon as you get skinbark. It's the veggie armor that takes research. One instance in which veggie leather is a good idea is if you're doing something like a solo run where you have neither farming 3 (for clothblossom) or crafting 4 (to research synthetics). You'll probably get both eventually, but veggie leather might fill the gap after your first set of clothes wears out.