Bill Whittingham

This profile, by Olga Dey-Bergmoser, was printed in 1994 in two columns beside a photograph; set out here in the order the columns are meant to be read, as the archive’s own copy of the document already gives it. The shop telephone number it prints is left as published: the document is from 1994, well before the Society’s 2011 privacy rule for personal contact details, and is published exactly as it appeared.

Into leathercraft by accident

Bill Whittingham never took to art at school, and did nothing with it until 1981, when his parents gave him a calligraphy set he used to make signs as a video store manager — the start of a graphic design business and, gradually, more ambitious work for his own enjoyment. In 1985, looking for an alternative to his retail management career, he applied to the Tandy Leather Company expecting to sell jackets and accessories; he found instead a How-To craft shop, was hired as assistant manager within two hours of applying, and was made manager of his own store after three weeks — teaching leathercraft two weeks after that, on five weeks’ experience. He read thirty-seven how-to books in a month, and went on to teach leathercraft in hospitals, schools, homes for the aged and prisons.

• Ran Northern Lights Leathercraft, sharing his studio with his two dogs, Amber and Radar
• Came to leathercraft by accident in 1985, hired as assistant manager of a Tandy Leather how-to craft shop, made store manager within three weeks and teaching leathercraft after five
• Joined the CSCL in 1987; won the Society’s Craftsman Award, Salon Award and Zalitis Leathercraft Award
• Best In Show and the Executive Award at the Leather ’94 Exhibition, Etobicoke City Hall; First Place, craft division, at the Visual Art Mississauga Valentine Show
• Taught leathercraft in hospitals, schools, homes for the aged and prisons, and appeared in twenty-one craft shows across Ontario in 1994 alone

By 1994 his work — soft leather baby shoes, belts, wallets, purses, evening bags, jewellery and jewellery boxes, fridge magnets, glass and napkin holders, leather wine rugs and clocks, intricate Bible covers, and a leather chess set of thirty-two double-sided figurines based on Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, some inlaid with crystal and shaded with an airbrush — was produced under the name Northern Lights Leathercraft.

With the Society

Bill joined the Canadian Society For Creative Leathercraft in 1987 and, at the time of this profile, was preparing for Fellow standing. The Society conferred its Best In Show award on him for a vanity mirror, which also won the Executive Award at the Leather ’94 Exhibition at Etobicoke City Hall, and he won all three of the Society’s major awards: the Craftsman Award for technical perfection; the Salon Award, for a belt, canteen, bowl and evening bag; and the Zalitis Leathercraft Award, for the highest mark on the Associate’s exam. In 1993 he took First Place in the craft division of the Visual Art Mississauga Valentine Show for a leather jewellery box, and in 1994 alone he featured in twenty-one different craft shows across Ontario, working full-time in his own business from that April.

From a profile of Bill Whittingham by Olga Dey-Bergmoser, 1994.