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Canadian Society for Creative Leathercraft
1950–2026
Members’ leatherwork, 2002 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2003 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2004 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2005 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2006 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2007 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2008 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2009 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2010 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2011 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2012 conventionThe 2013 biennial exhibitionMembers’ leatherwork, 2013 conventionThe Woodstock Art Gallery exhibition, 2013Members’ leatherwork, 2014 conventionMembers’ leatherwork, 2015 conventionA branch meeting, November 2015Members’ leatherwork, 2016 conventionA branch Christmas gathering, 2016A branch meeting, September 2016Members’ leatherwork, 2017 conventionA sewing workshop, February 2017A branch meeting, June 2017The hinged box workshop, March 2017A branch workshop, March 2017A leatherworker at the bench, from the Society’s photograph archiveA branch meeting, September 2017Members’ leatherwork, 2018 conventionA branch workshop, January 2018A branch meeting, November 2018Members’ leatherwork, 2019 conventionA branch workshop, December 2019The 73rd Annual Convention, 2023A carved and tooled back quiverHand-made cowboy bootsThe pewter casting workshopFrom the Society’s photograph archiveThe sewing machine workshopHand-made leathercraft stampsLacing a leather edgeA lasted leather jewellery boxThe box-lasting workshopLeather-covered fittingsA restored leather cutter and fudge wheelA moulded leather tankardAssorted members’ leatherworkA branch visit to Tandy, MississaugaWestern saddlery by Lester Pinter
4,274 photographs of Canadian leatherwork
ReadThe first newsletter, 1951 HistoryHow the Society started PeopleThe people of the Society LookThe Photo Gallery MakeTechniques and projects

A society of leather crafters, 1950–2025

For seventy-five years the members of this Society tooled, moulded, carved and stitched leather, and every year they brought their best work to the Annual Meeting to be judged. It began in Toronto on 8 June 1950, with Deane Russell as first president and Robert Muma as first treasurer. Muma was a master bookbinder, and he went on to become the Society’s historian and the keeper of its archive.

In September 1951 the members started a quarterly of their own, Canadian Leathercraft, and kept it going until the Society closed. Twelve branches carried the craft across Ontario. From 1954 to 1970 the Society also sent members’ pieces to the International Assembly of Leathercraftsmen, where the leathercraft guilds of Canada and the United States gathered to show their work.

On 10 May 2025 the members voted to dissolve the Society. Its last editor, with the caretakers who wound up its affairs, published one final issue, Fall 2026, to report the vote and the story of that last year.

This site is what survives: every issue, every photograph, the papers of every meeting, and the names of the people who made the work.

The membership of the Society assembled for the 40th Annual Meeting, Elmhurst Inn, Ingersoll, 1990
The 40th Annual Meeting · 28 April 1990 Sixty-one members on the steps of the Elmhurst Inn at Ingersoll — and every one of them named from the typed key to the picture. See who is in the photograph →
1950FoundedToronto, 8 June 1953The first FellowsEight, chosen by ballot 1957Weston TrophyBranch against branch 1954–1970The AssembliesWith American guilds 2025The last meeting10 May, Hamilton

Eight decades of the quarterly newsletters

Read Canadian Leathercraft →
Cover of the first issue, September 19511951Cover, Spring 19601960Cover, Spring 19701970Cover, Fall 19801980Cover, Fall 19901990Cover, Spring–Summer 20002000Cover, Fall 20102010Cover, Fall 20202020
253issues of the newsletter 120stories and essays 4,274photographs 685people named 194documents preserved 124techniques and projects 12branches

The people who made the work

The whole register → By surname →

Six hundred and eighty-five people are named in these records — as officers, as prizewinners, as teachers, and in memoriam. These are the makers whose work the Society recorded most often.

Ruth Haig 102Nancy Durham 77Sean Dalgetty 75Clara Cavanagh 72Loreen Manuel 72David McPherson 61Bill Whittingham 57Carol McLean 56Gregory Belenky 52Lauchlan Harrison 51Jessie Little 50Peter Grove 44Bea Austin 41Madeleine Mitchell 41Kim Winchester 40Irva Ford 39Paul Kitchener 38Cliff McTavish 37Eugene Pik 35Joan Carroll 35Anne Hook 34Olivia Smith 34
Weston Trophy Competition 1972 -- the Fellows' critique of every entry, with the typed sheet itself shown small beside the title
The Fellows’ critique · 1972 Every entry marked and commented on, not only the winners. Read the whole sheet →

The Weston Trophy

When the Weston Leathercraft Guild disbanded in the early 1950s — the first leather guild in Canada under the Canadian Handicrafts Guild — the money left in its treasury passed to the Society. The Executive spent it on a trophy, so that the guild would be perpetuated by the organisation that grew out of it. The first Weston Trophy went to the London Branch in 1957.

Each year the Council of Fellows — the Society’s Fellows, its senior certified rank, and the final authority on the standards of the craft — wrote a critique of every entry, not only the winners. Those critiques survive here from 1972, 1978 and 2012, typed sheet by sheet, branch by branch — the 2012 judges signing their own comments by hand — carrying the marks, the reasoning, and the plain judgements that went with them.

The trophy, and everyone who won it →

What they made, and how

All 124 techniques and projects →
Bags, pouches and carriers 6Belts 8Boxes, frames and cases 5Braiding and knotwork 4Carving and embossing 10Dyeing and colouring 6Finishing and edge work 3Garments and gloves 4Jewelry, pins and buckles 10Key fobs 2Lacing and stitching 10Leather basics, care and tanning 6Moccasins and footwear 4Moulding and cuir bouilli 6Ornaments 5Patterns and design 5Small projects and novelties 12Tools and shop practice 14Wallets 4